UC-NRLF 


Publications  of  the  University  of  Virginia 
P helps-Stores  Fellowship  Papers 


Rural  Land  Ownership  Among  the 
Negroes  of  Virginia 

With  Special  Reference  to  Albemarle  County 


BY 


SAMUEL  T.  BITTING 


EXCHANGE 


Publications  of  the  University  of  Virginia 
Phelps-Stokes  Fellowship  Papers 


Rural  Land  Ownership  Among  the 
Negroes  of  Virginia 

With  Special  Reference  to  Albemarle  County 


BY 

SAMUEL  T.  BITTING 


FOREWORD. 

The  present  essay,  which  for  simplicity  has  been  divided  into 
seven  chapters,  is  the  result  of  the  writer's  investigations  during 
his  incumbency  of  the  Phelps- Stokes-  Fellowship  at  the  Univer 
sity  of  Virginia  during  the  session  of  1914-15.  While  the  sub 
ject  is  too  great  to  be  treated  adequately  in  so  limited  a  time  it 
is  hoped  that  the  following  pages  may  at  least  suggest  the  dif 
ferences  in  economic  condition  between  urban  and  rural  negroes 
and  eventually,  perhaps,  lead  to  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  sub 
ject.  Like  all  social  questions  the  negro  problem  must  be  an 
alyzed  under  the  special  conditions  of  time  and  place  before 
there  can  be  any  intelligent  basis  for  action,  and  it  was  with 
the  purpose  of  increasing  the  present  inadequate  fund  of  such 
knowledge  that  the  present  study  was  undertaken. 

My  thanks  for  helpful  advice  on  the  ways  and  means  of  un 
dertaking  the  study  are  especially  due  to  Dr.  Thos.  W.  Page,  of 
the  University  of  Virginia;  Professor  W.  M.  Hunley,  of  the 
Virginia  Military  Institute;  Dr.  J.  H.  Dillard,  Director  of  the 
Jeannes  Fund,  Charlottesville,  Va. ;  and  Mr.  D.  Hiden  Ramsey, 
of  Asheville,  N.  C. ;  and  to  Dr.  Chas.  W.  Kent,  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Virginia,  who  read  the  manuscript.  Messrs.  N.  T.  Mc- 
Mannaway,  of  Charlottesville;  P.  T.  Atkinson,  of  Hampden- 
Sidney;  B.  E.  Copenhaver,  of  Marion;  and  R.  A.  Folkes,  of 
Gloucester  gave  valuable  information  on  school  conditions  which 
could  not  have  been  obtained  from  any  other  source  and  to 
that  degree  increase  whatever  value  the  present  study  may  have. 

S.  T.  BITTING. 
New  York  City, 
November, 


3419- 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
Modern  Agricultural  Virginia 7 

CHAPTER  II. 
Freedom  and  Property  Holding 22 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Present  Conditions 36 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Negro  Land  Ownership  in  Albemarle  County 56 

CHAPTER  V. 

Economic    Conditions    Among    the    Negroes    in    Albemarle 
County 67 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Social  Conditions 87 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Reflections  and  Conclusions. .  .  .98 


Appendix  and  Bibliography 104 


CHAPTER    I. 
MODERN  AGRICULTURAL  VIRGINIA. 

The  system  of  land  tenure  and  the  possibility  of  a  large  staple 
crop  early  determined  the  type  of  agricultural  economy  which 
was  to  become  typical  of  Colonial  Virginia.  In  response  to 
the  demand  for  cheap  labor  created  by  this  large  scale  agricul 
ture  negro  slavery  was  soon  introduced  into  the  commonwealth 
and  became  an  organic  part  of  the  economic  organization.  For 
about  two  centuries  this  system  prospered,  but  finally,  when 
good  land  became  scarce  in  the  nineteenth  century  it  weakened, 
and  indeed  all  but  gave  way  several  decades  before  emancipa 
tion  actually  occurred.  But  it  did  remain  until  the  War,  and 
the  plantation  was  characteristic  of  agriculture  in  the  Old  Do 
minion  except  in  the  Valley  where  small  farms  were  the  rule. 
The  negro  slaves  were  most  numerous  in  the  tobacco  raising 
sections  of  the  South  side.  With  the  \Var  between  the  States 
and  the  abolition  of  slavery,  however,  it  became  apparent  that  ?. 
complete  agricultural  and  industrial  revolution  had  begun. 

At  the  close  of  the  War  Virginia  found  itself  doubly  handi 
capped  because  not  only  had  its  economic  organization  been  com 
pletely  overturned  but  its  fields  had  been  the  scene  of  destruc 
tive  battles  prohibiting  for  the  time  production  of  any  sort. 
Thomas  Nelson  Page  says :  "The  disorganization  of  the 
laboring  class  in  Virginia  and  the  condition  of  her  transporta 
tion  facilities,  coupled  with  universal  lack  of  means  at  the  time, 
almost  destroyed  her  agriculture.  *  *  The  old  planter 

system  proved  generally  wholly  unsuited  to  the  new  conditions 
and  under  the  continued  depression  of  agriculture,  and  such 
agricultural  products  as  it  had  been  the  custom  to  raise  in  Vir 
ginia,  it  almost  entirely  disappeared.  When  labor  only  gave  a 
half-year's  work  for  a  full  year's  hire,  only  that  man  could  af 
ford  to  farm  who  was  independent  of  labor.  Thus,  the  old 
planter  class  gradually  passed  away,  the  young  representatives 
of  it  going  to  the  cities  and  seeking  other  fields  of  enterprise  for 
application  of  their  faculties,  and  their  place  has  been  taken  by 

7 


8  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP   PAPERS 

the  small  farmer  who  works  at  the  plow  himself  or  hires  a  few 
'hands'  to  work  under  his  own  eye."  1  And  during  the  years 
that  immediately  followed  the  War  it  was  the  small  farmer  who 
suffered  the  least,  for  the  planter,  burdened  with  land,  was 
unable  to  follow  similar  simple  methods.  Indeed,  the  complete 
prostration  of  the  planting  section  of  the  State  is  almost  beyond 
comprehension.  Page  says  of  this  section :  ("It  was  not  only 
that  property  values  had  been  swept  away,  but  that  everything 
except  the  bare  land  from  which  property  values  can  be  cre 
ated  had  been  extirpated.  The  entire  personal  property  of  the 
state  had  been  destroyed;  the  laboring  class  of  a  country  de 
pendent  upon  its  agriculture  had  been  suddenly  changed  from 
laborers  into  vagrants,  with  no  property  to  make  them  conserva 
tive  and  no  authority  to  hold  them  in  check.  Their  dependence 
was  suddenly  shifted  from  their  former  masters  to  strangers, 
whose  indirect,  if  not  their  direct  teaching  was  hostile  to  their 
former  owners.  The  country  was  left  overwhelmed  with  debt,  I 
with  nothing  remaining  with  which  the  debts  could  be  paid."^/ 

It  was  amid  such  conditions  that  the  people  of  Virginia  ad 
dressed  themselves  to  the  new  order.  For  a  few  years  the  old 
system  in  the  tobacco  counties  survived  by  its  inertia  and  the 
people  went  about  planting  on  borrowed  money.  But  such  a 
system  would  have  been  unsuited  to  the  new  conditions  under 
any  circumstances,  and^under  the  conditions  of  the  Reconstruc-  J 
tion  Period  every  energy  was  paralyzed  by  exterior  forces.1  The/ 
result  was  that  Virginia  and  more  especially  that  section  of  the 
state  known  as  the  "Black  Belt,"  where  conditions  approximate 
those  in  the  Gulf  States,  was  withdrawn  for  several  decades 
from  the  common  movement  of  progress  and  the  incubus  of  a 
body  of  homeless  and  helpless  ex-slaves  weighed  on  her  heav 
ily.  The  effect  of  the  changed  conditions  was,  indeed,  serious 
in  direct  proportion  to  the  number  of  negroes;  the  greatest 
problem  was  presented  in  the  Black  Belt,  while  in  the  upper 
Piedmont  Section  adjustment  was  'much  easier,  and  in  the 
Valley  the  evil  consequences  of  the  complete  social  and  indus 
trial  upheaval  were  reduced  to  a  minimum. 


1.  Thos.   Nelson   Page,   "The  Old  Dominion,"  325-6. 

2.  Ibid,    320. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP 

At  the  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  at  Ap- 
pomattox  the  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy  were  allowed  to  "keep 
their  horses!'  "They  will  need  them,"  said  General  Grant, 
''when  they  get  home  for  the  spring  plowing."  The  need  was  a 
crying  one;  soldiers  returned  home  after  four  long  years  to  find 
their  lands  as  war-worn  as  they  themselves,  and  the  horses 
which  they  rode  were  literally  their  only  dependence  for  a  new 
crop.  But  energy  for  the  peaceful  pursuits  was  not  lacking, 
and  in  1908  Page  declared  that  there  was  scarcely  a  professional 
man  in  the  state  over  the  age  of  fifty  who  had  not  worked  at 
the  plough  during  the  first  few  years  after  the  war.  There 
fore,  although  to  rebuild  the  state,  was  a  long  and  difficult  task 
and  the  people  could  not  adapt  themselves  to  the  changed  condi 
tions  in  a  day;  yet  by  the  close  of  the  last  century  the  indus 
trial  revolution,  so  abruptly  begun,  had  re-aligned  the  forces  of 
production  and  real  progress  was  well  under  way. 

"The  economic  emancipation  of  the  average  white  man,"  a 
Southern  writer  has  said,  "was  the  greatest  result  of  the  de 
struction  of  slave  labor,"  3  and  Virginia's  post-bellum  progress 
in  both  agriculture  and  industry  has  amply  illustrated  this  truth. 
With  the  downfall  of  the  old  regime  capital  was  no  longer  needed 
to  purchase  labor,  and  the  cheap  lands  enabled  the  poor  man, 
after  the  immediate  effects  of  the  War  were  over,  to  become  a 
land  owner  without  difficulty.  Such  was  the  theory,  and  that 
it  has  been  the  actual  condition  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that 
since  the  W7ar  the  number  of  small  farmers  has  steadily  in 
creased  and  the  average  size  of  farms  decreased  from  246  acres 
in  1870  to  118.6  in  1900.  Because  of  the  destruction  of  prop 
erty,  the  loss  of  capital,  and  the  almost  universal  bankruptcy 
the  white  sections  of  the  state  recuperated  much  more  rapidly 
than  did  the  black  sections.  In  1865  land  in  the  plantation  sec 
tions  was  a  drug  on  the  market — the  burden  of  cultivation  and 
taxation  was  greater  than  could  be  borne  by  the  bankrupt  own 
ers — ;  and  in  this  year  this  class  of  land  sold  at  from  one-fourth 
to  one-tenth  of  the  price  that  it  commanded  in  I860;  indeed,  it 


3.  Walter  L.   Fleming,   in   "The   South   in   the   Building  of  the   Na 
tion,"   Vol.  VI. 


10  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

could  seldom  be  sold  for  any  appreciable  amount.4  The  whites 
in  these  sections,  furthermore,  had  little  faith  in  free  negro  la 
bor.  This  opinion  for  some  years  seemed  to  be  amply  justified 
by  the  fact  that  negroes  flocked  to  the  cities  without  work  and 
to  the  disease-ridden  army  camps  in  such  numbers  that  DeBow 
estimated  that  one-fourth  of  the  negro  laborers  died  or  were 
disabled  in  the  first  five  years  of  freedom.  When  efforts  were 
made  to  cope  with  the  situation  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  inter 
fered  5  and  the  general  result  was  to  retard  those  sections  of 
the  state  where  the  negro  population  was  densest. 

Today  sections  of  Virginia  in  the  Valley  and  the  Southwest, 
where  the  negro  population  was  always  small,  are  among  the 
richest  and  most  prosperous  agricultural  districts  in  the  entire 
country,  and  other  districts  in  the  same  part  of  the  state  are 
destined  to  take  their  place  in  the  same  rank.  But  even  the 
poorest  section,  finally  recovered,  has  made  rapid  progress  in 
the  past  two  decades.  A  large  portion  of  the  old  plantation 
section  lying  within  the  influence  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay  has 
been  found  to  be  admirably  adapted  to  truck  farming,  and  now 
furnishes  fruits  and  vegetables  for  the  markets  of  the  eastern 
cities  several  weeks  before  they  can  mature  a  hundred  miles 
further  inland.  Another  portion  of  the  plantation  region,  the 
South  Side,  produces  "bright"  tobacco,  which  brings  a  far  bet 
ter  price  than  that  paid  for  common  leaf ;  and  in  yet  other  por 
tions  new  resources  are  being  developed.  Under  the  changed 
conditions  the  farmer  has  learned  the  value  of  land  and  labor 
as  factors  in  production  and  this  has  taught  him  "where  to  take 
in  and  where  to  let  out;"  he  no  longer  confines  himself  to  the 
staple  crops  and  he  raises  more  stock  than  he  formerly  did. 
And  of  equal  importance  is  the  more  scientific  basis  of  modern 
agriculture  which  not  only  increases  production  but  makes  the 
farm  again  attractive  to  the  representatives  of  the  old  planting 
class. 

While  it  would  be  out  of  place  here  to  go  into  the  enormous 

4.  Ibid. 

5.  See  Chap.  II  below. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  11 

industrial  strides  that  have  been  made  in  Virginia — and,  for  that 
matter,  all  over  the  South — since  the  Reconstruction  Period,  it 
will  be  well  before  going  on  to  an  outline  of  the  present  agri 
cultural  conditions  to  briefly  call  attention  to  Virginia's  indus 
trial  resources.  The  improvement  of  transportation  facilities 
in  the  eighties,  and  since  that  time,  was  the  beginning  of  the 
new  era.  The  railroads  penetrated  the  forests  and  the  timber 
proved  a  great  field  for  new  enterprise,  while  the  trans-Appalach 
ian  railways,  which  were  actually  opened  in  1882  under  the  di 
rection  of  Major  Jed  Hotchkiss,6  made  possible  the  development 
of  the  great  coal  fields  and  gave  a  stimulus  to  manufacturing. 
In  1907  the  Pocahontas  Fields  (Virginia  and  West  Virginia) 
produced  17,000,000  tons  of  coal  whereas  the  second  largest  out 
put,  that  of  the  Alabama  fields,  only  totalled  14,500,000  tons. 
Other  mineral  deposits  such  as  cement,  gypsum,  phosphate,  etc., 
have  likewise  been  extensively  developed  in  recent  years  and 
have  had  a  consequent  effect  upon  industry.  Under  the  stimu 
lus  of  the  factory  new  towns  are  now  springing  up,  and  in  the 
older  manufacturing  towns,  Richmond,,  Lynchburgi,  Roanoke, 
and  others  there  has  been  a  rapid  increase  in  population.  The 
general  business  revival  which  took  place  about  1880  was  in 
itself  of  considerable  aid  to  Virginia  industry  and  the  demand 
which  it  produced  for  Southern  raw  material  increased  the  work 
ing  capital  necessary  for  the  establishment  of  factories,  while 
Northern  capital  began  to  come  South  as  understanding  sup 
planted  misunderstanding.  About  this  time,  furthermore,  the 
people  began  to  see  that  if  labor  was  to  be  honored  it  must  be 
sufficiently  diversified  to  accommodate  the  different  aptitudes  of 
classes  and  races  and  by  1880  the  old  Virginia  factories  had 
been  placed  on  a  firm  foundation  while  their  number  and  equip 
ment  was  beginning  to  be  rapidly  increased  by  home  and  outside 
capital. 

Thomas  Nelson  Page  sums  up  the  recent  progress :  "The  con 
ditions  have  of  late  been  changing.     Virginia,  instead  of  being, 


6.  Article  by  E.   W.   Parker  in  "The   South   in  the   Building  of  the 
Nation,"   VI,   175. 


12  PHELPS-STOKKS    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

as  the  cant  phrase  went,  'a  good  place  to  come  from'  has  be 
come  once  more  a  good  place  to  come  to.  Her  advantages  of  lo 
cation  and  climate  have  ever  been  recognized,  and  of  late  other 
advantages  also  have  been  discovered.  Her  transportation  facil 
ities  have  been  steadily  improving,  her  mineral  resources  have 
attracted  the  attention  of  capital,  and,  being  examined,  have  been 
found  to  be  wonderful  both  in  quantity  and  quality.  Her  coal 
produces  the  highest  speed  in  the  ocean  racers  and  her  iron 
brings  the  best  prices  at  the  Northern  forges."  7  Or,  as  Chan 
cellor  J.  H.  Kirkland  says  of  the  South,  "she  is  now  sending 
iron  to  Pennsylvania  and  coal  to  Newcastle." 

TABLE   I:    VIRGINIA   MANUFACTORIES. 

1899  1904  1909 

No.    established    3,186                3,187                5,685 

Persons    engaged    88,898            120,797 

Proprietors     3,643                 6,570 

Salaried    empl's 3,828                 4,970                8,551 

Wage    earners    66,223               80,285            105,676 

Primary    horsepower     136,696            176,998            283,928 

Capital     $  92,300,000  $147,989,000  $216,392,000 

Expenses     $  94,513,000  $130,870,990'  $196,246,000 

Services     $  23,904,000  $  32,818,000  $  47,255,000 

Materials     $  59,359,000  $  83,649,000  $125,583,000 

Miscellaneous     $  11,250,000  $  14,403,000  $  23,408,000 

Val.    of    Product $108,644,000  $148,857,000  $219,794,000 

Produced    wealth     $  49,285,000  $  65,208,000  $  94,211,000 

The  above  table  shows  the  development  of  manufactures  in 
the  state  during  the  last  census  period.  In  the  order  of  their 
importance  the  manufactured  goods  of  Virginia  are:  timber 
products  over  thirty-five  million  dollars,  tobacco  over  twenty- 
five  millions,  flour  seventeen  millions,  car  and  shop  work  nine  mil 
lions,  fertilizer  eight  millions,  leather  eight  millions,  and  cotton 
goods  seven  millions.  The  value  of  the  gross  product,  which 
was  $220,000,000  in  1909  was  in  1870  barely  $38,000,000  and 


'.  Thos.    Nelson   Page,   "The   Old   Dominion,"   327. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  13 

in  1880  about  $52,000,000.8  From  these  figures  the  progress  of 
industry  is  apparent,  but  although  these  interests  are  important 
and  varied,  agriculture  continues  to  be  the  principal  producer  of 
wealth  and  the  occupation  of  the  majority  of  the  people. 

The  State  of  Virginia  is  geographically  divided  into  several 
sections,  and  since  these  divisions  are  closely  related  to  the  dif 
ferent  types  of  agriculture  and  negro  population,  it  will  be  in 
structive  to  note  their  natural  differences.  There  are,  in  gen 
eral,  three  principal  divisions  namely:  Tidewater,  Piedmont  and 
Middle  Virginia,  and  the  Valley  and  the  Southwest. 

Tidewater  Virginia,  or  the  Coastal  Plain,  comprises  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  state,  and  stretches  along  the  eastern  side  from  the 
Chesapeake  to  the  fall  line  of  the  Atlantic  rivers.  It  consists 
altogether  of  low  land  while  a  considerable  portion  of  it  lying 
nearest  the  bay  consists  of  marshes  that  are  reached  by  the  ocean 
tide.  It  is  essentially  an  alluvial  country  and  by  reason  of  its  soil 
and  climate  has  been  found  to  be  particularly  adapted  to  truck 
ing.  It  is  within  twelve  hours  of  20,000,000  consumers  and  its 
small  fruits  and  vegetables  find  a  ready  market  in  Baltimore, 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston.  The  trade  in  strawberries, 
peanuts,  and  potatoes  is  especially  large,  and  even  ten  years  ago 
yielded  annually  over  $12,000,000.9 

Piedmont  and  Middle  Virginia,  which  for  the  present  pur 
poses  may  be  considered  together,  consist  of  the  broad  alluvial 
level  and  rolling  lands  west  of  the  Tidewater.  The  principal 
products  of  Middle  Virginia  are  corn,  wheat,  oats,  hay  and  to 
bacco.  The  tobacco  raised  on  the  South  Side  is  that  known  as 
"Virginia  leaf"  and  has  a  world-wide  reputation  for  its  excel 
lence,  while  in  Halifax,  Pittsylvania,  and  Henry  Counties  the 
famous  "bright"  tobacco  is  raised.  Near  the  eastern  slopes  of 
the  Blue  Ridge  fruits  of  excellent  quality  are  produced  in  con 
siderable  quantities. 

The  Valley,  the  Southwest  and  the  Appalachian  region  com 
prise  the  balance  of  the  state.  The  great  Valley,  as  it  is  called, 
lies  between  the  two  mountain  chains  that  extend  throughout  the 


8.  Cf.  Census  Reports  for  respective  dates. 

9.  Virginia  Handbook,  1907. 


14  PHELPS-STOKES  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

state,  and  includes  parts  of  the  valleys  of  Shenendoah,  James, 
Roanoke,  Kanawha,  and  the  Houston  or  Tennessee.  Its  princi 
pal  crops  are  fruits  and  cereals,  and,  in  the  Southwest,  cattle — this 
section  having  the  distinction  of  being  the  only  exporter  of  fat 
tened  cattle  direct  from  the  pastures. 

Such,  in  brief,  are  the  geographical  divisions  of  the  state  and 
it  is  apparent  that  they  afford  great  agricultural  diversity.  In 
his  inaugural  address  ex-Governor  Swanson  said :  10  "No  State 
in  the  Union  has  richer  or  more  varied  resources  than  Virginia. 
In  extreme  Southside  Virginia  are  seen  great  white 
fields  of  cotton,  as  rich  in  beauty  and  luxuriant  in  growth  as  can 
be  found  in  North  Carolina  or  Georgia.  In  Piedmont  and  South 
ern  Virginia  are  produced  the  great  crops  of  tobaccc*  which 
largely  contribute  to  the  world's  supply.  The  magnificent  Valley 
of  Virginia,  raising  great  crops  of  wheat,  corn,  oats  and  hay, 
is  almost  unspeakable  in  her  prodigality  and  production.  The 
beautiful  hilltops  and  mountains  of  Southwest  and  Northern  Vir 
ginia,  with  their  spontaneous  and  perennial  growth  of  blue  grass, 
have  browsing  on  them  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep.  *  *  *  In 
eastern  and  Tidewater  Virginia  we  have  large  truck  farms  and 
gardens,  which  furnish  the  vast  population  of  the  Eastern  cities 
with  their  vegetables  and  foods.  The  profits  of  this  industry  are 
already  immense,  but  the  industry  is  still  in  its  infancy  and  its 
possibilities  for  the  future  are  immeasurable.  Nowhere  can 
fruit  grow  to  greater  perfection  than  in  Virginia,  and  her  great 
crops  of  apples,  peaches,  and  grapes  are  bringing  immense  re 
turns  and  have  brighter  promise  for  the  future.  There  is  not  a 
farm  product  known  to  the  temperate  zone  that  can  not  be  raised 
in  the  varied  soil,  climate  and  conditions  of  Virginia.  Every 
where  in  the  state  are  seen  evidences  of  intelligent  and  scientific 
farming,  of  progress  and  prosperity.  The  increase  in  farm  prod 
ucts  and  values  in  recent  years  has  been  striking  and  excelled 
by  few  states  in  the  Union."  These  passages  do  not  exaggerate 
when  they  point  out  the  diversity  of  agricultural  products. 

Certain  figures  derived  from  the  last  census  may  be  of  benefit 

10.  Quoted   from   address   of   Feb.    1,   1906. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  15 

in  giving  an  idea  of  present  agricultural  conditions  within  the 
state.  In  the  first  place,  according  to  the  census,  more  than 
three-fourths  of  the  entire  area  of  the  state  is  in  farms,  thus 
placing  Virginia  distinctly  in  the  class  of  agricultural  states. 
With  the  exception  of  fifteen  counties — seven  in  the  mountains 
and  eight  on  the  coast — the  proportion  of  farm  land  to  total 
area  is  three-fifths  or  more  and  of  these  eighty-five  counties, 
eleven — Scott,  Grayson,  Carrol,  Floyd,  Franklin,  Pittsylvania, 
Halifax,  Caroline,  King  George,  Clark,  and  London — have  over 
ninety  per  cent  of  their  area  in  farms. 

The  average  value  of  farm  lands  for  the  whole  state,  accord 
ing  to  the  census,  is  $20.24  per  acre,  with  an  average  value  of 
less  than  $10  in  thirteen  counties  and  over  $50  in  five.  More 
than  half  of  the  counties  (58)  show  an  average  value  of  between 
$10  and  $25 — these  with  those  valued  at  less  than  $10  per  acre 
occupy  most  of  the  South-central  portion  of  the  state  which 
was  formerly  the  Black  Belt.  Of  the  twenty-four  counties  val 
ued  at  between  $25  and  $50,  eight  are  in  the  Southwest,  ten  are 
in  the  Northern  Neck,  and  the  remaining  six  include  Chester 
field  and  five  coast  counties. 

During  the  last  census  period  there  was  an  increase  of  16,132 
farms  or  9.6C/C,  coincident  with  an  increase  of  11.2%  in  the 
general  population  of  the  State.  The  average  size  of  farms  de 
creased  from  118.6  to  105.9  acres.  The  total  value  of  farm 
property,  which  includes  land,  implement,  livestock,  buildings, 
and  poultry  was  in  1910  $625,065,000  or  93.2%  greater  than 
in  1900.  The  value  of  land  alone  increased  96.7%  as  compared 
with  increases  of  93.6%  in  the  value  of  buildings,  82.8%  in  im 
plements,  and  78.2%  in  stock.  The  average  value  of  a  farm, 
including  its  equipment,  is  $3,397,  or  an  increase  of  76.3%  since 
1900.  In  Tennessee,  a  State  comparable  to  Virginia,  the  in 
crease  in  the  value  of  farm  property  was  79%,  as  compared  with 
Virginia's  93.2%.n 

Tabulated,  Virginia's  progress  in  agriculture  since  1870,  when 
the  immediate  effects  of  the  war  were  over,  appears  as  follows: 


11.  The  decrease  in  the  purchasing  power  of  money  makes  all  of 
these  figures  more  apparent  than  real. 


16 


PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP   PAPERS 


TABLE   II:    PROGRESS   IN   AGRICULTURE. 


Population 
No.  of  farms 
Land   in   farrr 
Imp.    land    in 
Acres    per    fa 
Value    per    fa 
Total    val.    farms.. 
Per  cent,   of  farms 

operated  by  owners 

By  tenants    

Val.    land  and  bldgs. 

per   acre  


1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

1,225,163 

1,512,565 

1,655,980 

1,854,184 

5 

73,849 

118,517* 

127,600 

167,886 

nsf  — 

18,145,911 

19,835,785 

19,104,951 

19,907,883 

farms 

8,165,040 

8,510,113 

9,125,545 

10,094,805 

arm.  .  . 

245.7 

167.4 

149.7 

118.6 

arm.  .  . 

$2,666 

$2,088 

$2,308 

$1,927 

$196,906,040  $247,476,536  $294,488,569  $325,515,977 


1.39 


70.5% 
29.5% 

$10.89 


73.1%      69.3% 
26.9        30.7 


$13.3^ 


$13.64 


Per  cent. 

in  last 

1910    decade 

2,061,612  11.2? 

184,081   9.6? 

19,495,636  -2,1? 

9,807,058  -2.2? 

105.9§-10.7? 

$3,397    76? 

$625,065,383  93.2? 

73.5% 
26.5 

$27.29  100% 


As  shown  by  the  table  the  increase  in  the  value  of  farm  prop 
erty  in  forty  years  amounts  to  $428,159,000  of  which  $50,570,000 
is  credited  to  the  first  decade,  $47,012,000  to  the  second, 
$29,027,000  to  the  third,  and  over  three  hundred  million  to  the 
last.  All  classes  of  farm  property  show  increases  for  each  decade 
which  are  in  fact  considerable,  and  only  seem  small  when  com 
pared  with  those  of  the  last.  In  1870  the  plantation,  which  had 
been  the  agricultural  unit  before  the  war,  still  existed  to  a  con 
siderable  extent,  and  the  attempt  to  continue  the  old  methods 
accounts  for  the  large  farms  of  that  year.  During  the  last 
thirty  years  these  large  estates  have  been  divided  into  smaller 
farms,  and  either  sold  or  operated  by  tenants. 

The  matter  of  land  tenure  is  especially  important  when  deal 
ing  with  negro  farmers,  because  in  the  lower  South  tenantry 
occupies  the  great  majority  of  negro  agricultural  workers.  In 
1910  the  number  of  farms  in  Virginia  was  184,018  and  of  the 


*Note  60%  inc.   1870-1880. 

fTotal  land  area  of  State,  25,767,680  acres. 

$It  will  be  seen  that  more  than  a  reasonable  advance  was  made 
in  the  previous  decade  for  an  old  farming  country. 

§In  Tennessee  the  average  size  farm  is  81.5  acres,  worth  $23.98 
per  acre. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  17 

operators  133,664  are  classed  as  owners,  and  48,729  as  tenants. 
Of  the  owners  15,700  rent  additional  acreage  and  of  the  tenants 
11,143  are  cash,  1,208  share-cash,  and  33,472  share.  The  bal 
ance  are  not  reported  in  the  census.  The  number  of  tenants  re 
porting  in  1910  represent  a  gain  of  39.3%  since  1880  but  the 
gain  has  been  fluctuating  and  there  was  a  decrease  of  nearly 
3,000  between  1900  and  1910.  The  proportion  of  tenants  to 
all  farmers  which  was  29.5%,  in  1880,  was  only  26.5%  in  1910, 
this  being  the  lowest  proportion  shown  for  any  census.  In  1910 
75.5%  of  all  land  in  farms  was  operated  by  owners,  (the  es 
timate  includes  part  owners),  3.4%  by  managers,  and  21.1%  by 
tenants,  the  percentage  for  owners  being  higher  and  that  for 
tenants  and  managers  lower  than  in  1900. 

TABLE  III:  TENURE  OF  FARMS. 


All 

farmers 

White 

farmers 

Negro 

farmers 

1900 

1910 

1900 

1910 

1900 

1910 

Owners     

68% 

72.6% 

71  2% 

74  6% 

59  3% 

67% 

Managers 

1  3% 

9% 

1  5% 

1  1% 

5% 

4% 

Tenants     

...      30  7% 

26  5% 

27  3% 

24  3% 

402% 

32  6% 

It  is  shown  by  the  table  that  the  proportion  of  land  in  farms 
operated  by  owners  showed  a  slight  increase  among  the  white 
farmers  and  a  decided  increase  among  the  negro  farmers.12  The 
average  white  farm  in  1910  was  127  acres  while  the  average 
negro  farm  was  46.5%  acres.  The  proportion  of  improved  land 
to  total  farm  land  was  slightly  larger  for  the  whites  than  for 
the  negroes,  being  50.8%  in  one  case  and  49.6%  in  the  other. 

As  to  the  size  of  farms  those  between  50  and  99  acres  con 
stituted  21.8%  of  the  total  white  farms  and  those  between  100 
and  174  acres  and  between  20  and  49  acres  constituted  21.2% 
and  19.1%  respectively;  for  the  negroes,  farms  of  20  to  49 
acres  constituted  34.2%  while  those  of  from  10  to  19  acres 
comprised  20.9%  and  ranked  next  in  importance.  Of  farms  op- 


12.  Because,   however,    of   the    comparatively    small    number    of   ne 
gro  owners  in  1900  this  increase   is  not  so  real  as  it  is  apparent. 


—2 


18  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

crated  by  negroes,  35.5%   are  less  than  20  acres  as  compared 
with  16.6%  of  those  operated  by  white  farmers. 

As  to  the  crops,  the  war  effected  a  radical  change  in  the  old 
staple  crop  of  tobacco  westward  to  Kentucky  and  Tennessee ; 
and  Virginia,  as  the  table  shows,  has  only  recently  entirely  re 
covered,  although  an  increased  consumption  since  187'0  has  stim 
ulated  production. 

TABLE  IV:    TOBACCO  PRODUCTION. 

1860     123,968,312  Ibs. 

1870    37,086,364  " 

1880    79,988,868  " 

1890     48,522,655  " 

1900    122,884,900  " 

1910    132,979,390  " 

Virginia  today,  producing  over  130  million  pounds,  ranks 
third  among  the  tobacco  producing  states  of  the  Union.  Prior 
to  the  War  the  principal  tobacco  counties  were  Pittsylvania, 
Mecklenburg,  Charlotte,  and  Albemarle  and  the  plantations 
ranged  from  100  to  500  acres  while  today  tobacco  farms  range 
from  20  to  50  acres  and  none  of  the  counties  any  longer  rely 
solely  on  tobacco.  Along  with  increased  diversification  and 
smaller  farms,  coupled  with  increased  value  of  land  and  labor, 
goes  more  intensive  cultivation.  In  1880  Virginia  raised  568 
pounds  of  tobacco  to  the  acre,  while  in  1905  this  average  had 
been  raised  to  675  pounds,13  a  condition  in  part  made  possible 
by  the  high  price  of  tobacco  which  put  fertilizer  within  reach  of 
the  producer,  but  also  in  large  measure  due  to  the  more  scien 
tific  methods  pursued  in  its  production. 

The  following  table  shows  the  extent  of  diversification  of 
crops  in  1910.  It  should,  however,  be  remembered  that  the 
acreage  is  a  better  index  than  either  the  amount  or  value  of  the 
crops,  because  of  the  varying  seasons  and  the  variations  in  value 
of  crop. 


13.  Article  by   Meyer  Jacobson   in   "The   South   in    the   Building   of 
the   Nation,"   VI,   69. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP 


19 


TABLE  V:  AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS. 


Acres  har 
vested* 


Amount 


Value 


Corn  over  $28,000,000     ~"| 

Wheat    over    $8,000,000    ^  2,841,114       50,283,074  bu.              $39,993,929 

Oats   over  $1,000,000       J 

Peanuts 162,180         4,381,413  bu.                  4,430,384 

Grass    seeds,    etc 80,562 

Hay  and  Forage 773,577            823,382  tons              10,256,998 

Potatoes    86,927         8,779,778  bu.                  5,667,557 

Sweets    40,838         5,270,202  bu.                   2,681,472 

Tobacco    185,427    132,979,390  Ibs.                12,169,086 

Cotton    25,147              10,480  bales                 695,721 

Cotton  Seed 5,240  tons                   126,546 

Sugar    Crops 8,308                                                      224,094 

Miscel.    Vegetables 124,350                                               8,989,467 

Miscellaneous    123,029 

Nursery   Products 522,480 

Small    Fruits 671,843 

Fruits    and    Nuts 3,770,491 

Maple  Sugar  &  Sugar....  12,223 

Forest  Products 10,118,851 

Total     $100,531,157 

Total   for   previous   census    (1899) $  58,701,743 

*A11  farms  not  reported. 

Corn  remains  almost  a  universal  crop,  but  it  is  often  alter 
nated  with  wheat.  The  average  value  per  acre  for  corn  in  Vir 
ginia  in  1906  was  $11.55  14  or  a  little  more  than  that  of  Iowa 
and  the  same  as  that  for  Indiana.  Peanuts,  which  are  along 
with  cotton  seed,  a  totally  new  money  crop  since  the  War,  form 
with  this  staple  a  large  part  of  the  state's  agricultural  wealth. 
Before  the  War  corn  and  tobacco  were  practically  the  only  crops 
and  today  we  find  a  diversity  excelled  in  but  very  few  of  the 
states.  In  the  matter  of  vegetables  alone  the  production  in 
creased  between  1890  and  1900  something  like  450%,  the  av 
erage  production  of  vegetables  per  acre  being  in  excess  of  that 
in  Ohio,  where  a  large  urban  population  creates  a  greater  local 

14.  Year  Book  of  State  Dept.  of  Agriculture    (1906). 


20  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

demand  for  truck  garden  products.  Among  the  cereals  corn 
ranks  first,  representing  two  thirds  of  the  acreage  and  five  sev 
enths  of  the  total  value.  Since  1880  the  corn  acreage  has  in 
creased  slightly  while  oats  have  decreased  and  wheat  has  re 
mained  practically  the  same. 

Statistics  are  not  always  convincing,  but  where  they  are  so 
striking  as  those  which  show  the  progress  of  Virginia  in  indus 
try,  commerce,  agriculture,  and  the  other  sources  of  wealth,  it 
is  at  once  apparent  that  the  Old  Dominion  is  rapidly  restoring 
its  wealth  and  building  up  its  waste  places.  It  is  no  longer  de 
pendent  upon  negro  labor — though  for  many  purposes  it  is  still 
preferred — and  the  farmers  have  shown  their  ability  to  practice 
diversification  and  concentration.  With  the  industrial  advances, 
furthermore,  the  vocations  of  the  people  are  becoming  more  di 
versified;  the  professional  men  of  ante-bellum  days  are  entering 
industry,  commerce,  and  finance  and,  applying  their  talents,  are 
increasing  production. 

These  changed  economic  conditions,  which  afford  wider  and 
more  varied  opportunities  for  earning  a  livelihood,  have  an  im 
portant  bearing  upon  race  relations  and  it  is  only  in  the  light 
of  actual  present  day  conditions  that  they  can  be  intelligently 
considered.  In  Virginia,  where  the  contact  between  the  races 
has  been  intimate,  the  negro  problem  was  never  so  serious  as 
in  the  Gulf  States  where  the  proportion  of  negro  population  is 
greater  and  where  the  negroes  work  largely  as  field  hands  with 
out  coming  into  direct  contact  with  the  whites.  Under  the  new 
order  of  things,  however,  the  inter-racial  relations  have  been 
altered  and  the  negro's  wider  field  of  economic  activity  has  al 
tered  his  status. 

As  would  normally  be  expected,  the  great  economic  changes 
which  have  taken  place  within  the  last  few  decades  have  af 
fected  the  employment  of  the  negroes.  The  ratio  between  black 
and  white  population  is,  to  be  sure,  considerably  smaller  than 
it  was  immediately  after  the  War,  and  the  ratio  of  negro  farm 
workers  would  naturally  be  smaller,  but  in  addition  to  this  the 
small  farm  movement,  where  less  hired  help  is  required,  has 
tended  to  take  away  the  employment  of  many  negroes.  That 
there  is  no  excessive  supply  of  negro  labor  as  a  result  of  this, 


RURAL  LAND   OWNERSHIP  21 

however,  seems  to  be  shown  by  the  fact  that  there  has  been 
no  decrease  in  the  rate  of  wages  but  rather  a  steady  increase 
too  great  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  decreased  purchasing  power 
of  money.  Many  of  the  negroes  have  entered  transportation,15 
many  more  have  entered  mining,  and  still  others  are  occupied 
in  the  new  callings  in  the  cities.  Of  recent  years  the  number 
of  negro  artisans  in  the  state  has  been  decreasing  and  the 
industrial  revival  has  not  found  it  practicable  to  use  negro  la 
borers  as  factory  operatives  (except  in  the  tobacco  factories), 
but  they  have  entered  the  allied  industries  of  transportation,  min 
ing,  and  lumbering  in  large  numbers.  Thus  while  negroes  are 
not  employed  directly  as  a  result  of  the  increased  number  of 
factories,  the  wider  industrial  development  has  increased  the 
number  of  vocations  which  they  may  enter. 

In  spite  of  these  new  vocations,  however,  the  city  negroes 
have  not  increased  any  faster,  relatively,  than  have  the  rural 
negroes  and  many  have  remained  in  the  agricultural  pursuits. 
In  the  country  they  have,  from  their  profits  as  renters  or  from 
their  savings  as  laborers,  gradually  begun  to  acquire  property 
and  the  rapidity  with  which  their  rural  holdings  have  increased 
in  the  past  twenty  years  has  been  nothing  short  of  remarkable. 
It  is  the  negroes  who  have  remained  in  the  country,  rather  than 
those  who  have  sought  uncertain  employment  in  the  cities,  who 
have  made  the  most  rapid  progress  in  acquiring  property  and 
economic  stability. 


15.  See  below,  p.  35. 


CHAPTER   II. 
FREEDOM  AND  PROPERTY  HOLDING. 

It  has  been  briefly  shown  how  completely  prostrated  was  ag 
riculture  immediately  after  and  for  several  years  following  the 
9  War  between  the  States  and  how  the  new  industrial  organization 
I  gradually  evolved  after  the  incubus  of  slavery  was  removed. 
>  But  adaptation  to  the  new  conditions  was  no  easy  process  and 
the  negroes,  freed  overnight,  were  more  at  a  loss,  under  the  new 
conditions,  than  were  any  other  classes  of  society.  Their  one 
valuable  asset  was  the  training  which  they  had  received  in  slav 
ery  and  many  of  them  took  advantage  of  this  to  enter  agriculture 
and  the  semi-skilled  trades.  There  were  many  forces,  however, 
in  the  years  that  followed  the  War  which,  taken  with  the  negro's 
inborn  traits,  tended  to  keep  matters  unsettled  and  postpone  eco 
nomic  adjustment.  The  natives  of  West  Central  Africa  lived 
under  conditions  of  tropical  plenty  where  wild  fruits  were  in 
abundance  and  easy  cultivation  made  large  returns  for  slight 
labor.  There  was,  therefore,  nothing  in  the  environment  under 
which  the  negro's  racial  characteristics  were  determined  to  create 
industrial  capacity  and  when  he  was  taken  from  his  native  land 
he  was  not  only  untrained  but  he  was  organically  lacking  in 
energy,  industry,  and  providence,  qualities  which  seem  more  apt 
to  occur  in  the  peoples  of  the  North  temperate  zone. 

When  the  negro  was  taken  into  slavery  there  were  many 
changes  in  all  of  the  conditions  of  his  life,  but  the  greatest 
of  these  was  that,  for  the  first  time  in  his  history,  he  was  forced 
to  work.  During  slavery  the  negroes  were  given  a  very  com 
plete  knowledge  of  the  trades  and  industries  which  lie  at  the 
basis  of  civilization  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  most  capable  leader 
which  the  race  has  so  far  produced,  it  was  the  salvation  of  the 
race  in  America,  because  "every  large  plantation  in  the  South 
was,  in  a  limited  sense,  an  industrial  school."  l  And  in  the  opin- 


1.  Washington,  "The  Future  of  the  American  Negro,"  54. 

22 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  23 

ion  of  Dr.  H.  B.  Frissell,  the  principal  of  Hampton,  "The  South 
ern  plantation  was  really  a  great  trade  school  where  the  slaves 
received  instruction  in  mechanical  arts,  in  agriculture,  in  cooking, 
sewing  and  other  domestic  occupations.  Although  it  may  be 
said  that  all  this  instruction  was  given  from  selfish  motives,  yet 
the  fact  remains  that  the  slaves  on  many  plantations  had  good 
industrial  training,  and  all  honor  is  due  to  the  conscientious  men 
and  still  more  to  the  noble  women  of  the  South  who  in  slavery 
times  helped  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  better  days  that  were  to 
come."  2 

In  Virginia,  furthermore,  there  was  a  factor  which  tended  to 
improve  the  negro  organically.  With  the  decline  of  the  large 
plantations  in  the  early  part  of  the  19th  century  the  demand  for 
slaves  decreased  and  after  this  time  the  state  was  largely  engaged 
in  selling  slaves  to  the  far  South.  Few  negroes  were  imported 
into  Virginia  in  the  last  hundred  years  of  slavery,  and  the  conse 
quent  process  of  weeding  out  or  artificial  selection  produced  a 
superior  quality  of  negroes  in  the  state — as  indeed  it  did  in  the 
other  border  states.  To  indicate  the  character  of  the  negroes  sold 
from  the  border  states,  Bracket  gives  a  quotation  from  a  Balti 
more  newspaper  advertising  some  good  negroes  to  be  "exchanged 
for  servants  suitable  for  the  South  with  bad  characters."  3  The 
result  of  this  selection  and  the  better  training,  made  possible  by 
the  more  intimate  relations  between  master  and  servant  in  Vir 
ginia,  was  to  improve  very  materially  the  quality  of  the  negroes 
within  the  state. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  War,  broadly  speaking,  four  classes 
of  slaves  had  evolved.  The  highest  rank  was  that  of  sub-over 
seer.  On  many  of  the  Virginia  plantations  trusted  slaves  often 
took  the  place  of  paid  white  overseers,  and  that  this  was  pos 
sible  shows  to  what  an  extent  the  fittest  of  the  African  popula 
tion  had  acquired  industrial  qualities  under  slavery.  Next  stood 
the  domestic  servants  for  which  the  brightest  and  quickest  were 
picked,  and  who  constituted  a  much  envied  class  among  the  ne- 


2.  Quoted  in   Kelsey,   "The   Negro   Farmer." 

3.  Bracket,    "The    Negro    in    Maryland,"   quoted   by    Kelsey,   "The 
Negro  Farmer." 


24  PHELPS-STOKSS  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

groes  by  reason  of  the  exceptional  advantages  afforded  by  con 
tact  with  the  whites.  Below  this  group  were  the  semi-skilled 
artisans  who  were  the  plantation  cobblers,  carpenters,  smiths, 
etc.  The  lowest  grade,  a  class  composed  of  left-overs,  was  that 
of  the  field  hands.  In  the  cotton  raising  states  it  was  this  class 
which  predominated,  while  in  Virginia,  where  agriculture  had 
already  advanced  beyond  this  stage,  the  upper  classes  were  much 
more  numerous. 

When  the  slaves  were  freed,  therefore,  the  Virginia  negroes 
had  the  advantage  over  their  Southern  brethren  in  both  training 
and  inheritance.  Still,  however,  certain  racial  traits  were  pres 
ent,  and  so  long  as  the  laws  of  inheritance  hold  true  they  will 
remain  to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  Aside  from  mental  capacity, 
these  traits  may,  for  purposes  of  analysis,  be  divided  into  four 
principal  classes.  First  is  the  lack  of  purpose.  Booker  Wash 
ington  said  that  an  "element  of  weakness  which  shows  itself  in 
/the  present  stage  of  the  civilization  of  the  negro  is  his  lack  of 
/.'  ability  to  form  a  purpose  and  stick  to  it  through  a  series  of 
\[  years."  4  Indeed,  it  is  this  very  lack  of  resolve  that  has,  so  far 
^  back  as  history  goes,  made  the  negro  an  ideal  slave.  Again  we 
find  carelessness,  which  includes  indifference  and  lack  of  atten 
tion,  which  makes  him  accept  a  mean  lot  with  no  ambition  to 
rise  above  it.  A  third  characteristic  which  has  materially  re 
tarded  the  progress  of  the  negro  since  his  emancipation,  and 
which  was  indeed  a  certain  handicap  to  him  during  slavery,  is 
improvidence.  There  was  nothing  in  either  the  environment  of 
Africa  or  that  of  slavery  to  develop  thrift  and  economy  and 
that  they  are  lacking  is  to  be  expected,  but  the  fact  remains  that 
they  are  qualities  necessary  for  modern  economic  efficiency.  "It 
may  be  asserted  without  overstatement,"  says  a  careful  ob 
server,5  "that  his  inclination  to  gratify  his  tastes  in  those  ways 
that  money  allows  is  only  circumscribed  by  the  limitation  put 
upon  his  freedom  of  purchase."  Wastefulness  and  destructive- 
ness  form  the  final  class  of  these  traits  which  are  organically 
present  in  the  negro.  Examples  of  these  traits  are  to  be  found 


4.  Washington,  "The  Future  of  the  American  Negro." 

5.  Bruce,  "The  Plantation  Negro  as  a  Free  Man,"  195. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  25 

wherever  the  negro  is  employed  unless  by  careful  training  he 
has  overcome  them. 

It  is  with  these  handicaps  that  the  negro  has  entered  free 
economic  competition.  They  are  innate  and  were  not  changed 
by  emancipation.  "An  overwhelming  majority  of  the  race  in 
its  new  struggle  for  existence  under  the  exacting  conditions  of 
American  industry,"  says  Tillinghast,  who  has  made  a  careful 
study  of  the  economic  heritage  of  the  race,  "is  seriously  handi 
capped  by  inherited  characteristics.  Economic  freedom  has  not 
developed  a  sense  of  responsibility  and  a  persistent  ambition  to 
rise  in  energy,  purpose,  and  stability;  they  are  giving  way  before 
the  whites  in  the  skilled  and  better  paid  occupations ;  and  they 
fail  to  husband  resources  so  as  to  establish  economic  safety."  6 

In  spite  of  these  deficiencies,  however,  the  negro  has  since  his 
freedom  made  remarkable  progress  in  acquiring  property.  The 
explanation  seems  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  by  entering  agriculture 
the  negro  is  putting  to  use  what  he  learned  best  in  slavery,  and 
that  in  rural  pursuits  he  comes  into  less  intimate  competition 
with  the  whites  and  in  so  far  as  he  does  compete  with  them  his 
lower  standard  of  living  to  some  extent  counterbalances  his  in 
ferior  efficiency.  He  did  not  begin  to  acquire  land,  however,  to 
any  appreciable  extent  until  after  the  disturbing  influences  of 
the  Reconstruction  Period  had  passed  over. 

Because  of  the  "general  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  negro 
to  move  at  least  once  a  year,  the  love  of  hunting,  fishing,  church 
and  circus  going,  and  other  amusements  which  took  him  from 
his  work"  7  the  average  white  placed  but  little  dependence  upon 
free  negro  labor  after  the  War.  Accordingly  the  most  impor 
tant  question  before  the  Southern  legislatures  in  1865  was  that 
of  the  ex-slave;  he  must  work,  obey  the  laws,  abandon  his  va 
grant  habits  and  in  general  become  responsible  for  himself  and 
to  society.  To  assist  in  bringing  about  this  end  the  so-called 
Black  Codes  were  passed  in  several  of  the  Southern  States,  not 
ably  Louisiana,  South  Carolina,  and  Mississippi,  which  paved 
the  way  for  what  it  was  thought  would  be  a  general  Southern 


6.  J.  A.  Tillinghast,  "The  Negro  in  Africa  and  America."     Annals 
of   the   American    Economic   Association,    May,    1902. 

7.  Flemming  in  "The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation,"  IV,  448. 


26  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP   PAPERS 

system  of  apprenticeship.  "To  the  (Southern  lawmaker,"  says 
Woodrow  Wilson,  "such  restraints  and  compulsions  seemed  to 
be  demanded  by  ordinary  prudence  for  the  control  and  at  least 
temporary  discipline  of  a  race  so  recently  slaves,  and  therefore 
so  unfit  to  exercise  their  new  liberty,  even  with  advantage  to 
themselves,  without  some  checks  put  upon  them."  8 

But  to  Congress  they  were  plain  and  wilful  violations  of  the 
negro's  freedom  and  their  execution  was  suspended  by  the  "Bu 
reau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen,  and  Abandoned  Lands."  However 
praiseworthy  may  have  been  the  intent  of  those  who  planned 
the  work  of  this  bureau,  it  is  the  opinion  of  unbiased  observers 
that  it  was  disturbing  to  the  working  of  natural  economic  laws 
because  it  interfered  between  master  and  former  slave.  John 
Minor  Botts,  a  Virginian  Unionist,  writing  in  1866  said  of  the 
bureau :  "I  think  that  one  of  the  greatest  difficulties  in  Virginia 
in  regard  to  the  colored  people  arises  from  the  organization  of  the 
Freedmen's  bureau.  *  *  *  I  have  heard  of  a  great  many  diffi 
culties  and  outrages  which  have  proceeded  from  *  *  the 
ignorance  and  fanaticism  of  persons  connected  with  the  Freed 
men's  Bureau,  who  do  not  understand  anything  of  the  true  re 
lation  of  the  original  master  to  the  slave,  and  who  have  in  many 
instances,  held  out  promises  and  inducements  which  can  never 
be  realized  by  the  negroes,  which  have  made  them  entirely  in 
different  to  work  and  sometimes  ill-behaved."  °  In  the  same 
year  Stephen  Powers,  correspondent  to  the  Cincinnati  Com 
mercial  and  a  Northerner  by  birth,  after  expressing  his  approval 
of  the  general  purpose  of  the  bureau  criticised  its  organization 
as  follows :  "In  many  cases  it  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
incompetent  and  speculating  officers,  who  made  it  a  by-word  and 
unnecessarily  obnoxious  to  the  people  of  the  State  where  it  was 
located."  10  The  effect  of  all  of  this  was  to  demoralize  the  labor 
ing  force  and  thus  hinder  the  progress  of  both  the  white  farmer 
and  the  freed  slave.  Writing  in  1865  Carl  Shurz,  expressed  the 
situation  well  when  he  said :  "The  true  nature  of  the  difficulties 


8.  Woodrow  Wilson,  "Division  and  Reunion,"  261. 

9.  Flemming,    "Documentary   History   of   the    Reconstruction,"   365. 

10.  Ibid.,  365. 


RURAIv  LAND  OWNERSHIP  27 

of  the  situation  is  this :  the  general  government  of  the  republic 
has,  by  proclaiming  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  commenced 
a  great  social  revolution  in  the  South,  but  has,  as  yet,  not  com 
pleted  it."  ll  Conditions  were  not  improved  by  the  Reconstruc 
tion  Act  which  was  passed  in  1867  and  which  divided  the  seced 
ing  states  into  military  districts. 

When  it  was  found,  therefore,  that  the  regulations  to  control 
the  plantation  labor  could  not  be  enforced,  a  new  system  of  ag 
ricultural  economy  had  to  be  resorted  to  which,  while  never  as 
important  in  Virginia  as  in  the  far  South  occupied,  and  still  oc 
cupies,  many  of  the  negroes.  It  was  the  metayage  or  share  sys 
tem,  which  economists  usually  consider  a  poor  form  of  agricul 
tural  organization,  but  which  was  about  the  only  practicable  one 
at  the  time,  because  the  lack  of  capital  and  the  disorganization 
of  the  laboring  force  prohibited  the  sale  of  the  plantations  so 
that  if  they  were  to  be  cultivated  at  all  they  had  to  be  rented  out 
in  small  parcels.  In  1880,  21,594  of  the  118,517  farms  in  Vir 
ginia  were  rented  on  shares,  while  13,392  were  rented  for  fixed 
money  rentals.  The  census  does  not  distinguish  between  the 
races,  but  it  is  probable  that  most  of  the  "croppers"  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  "renters"  were  negroes.  By  this  time  several 
variations  of  the  system  had  been  evolved.12 

The  old  tobacco  and  cotton  plantations  on  the  South  Side, 
where  the  effects  of  the  War  were  most  serious,  were  the  prin 
cipal  ones  to  resort  to  this  system  and  here,  indeed,  it  still  con 
tinues  to  a  very  appreciable  extent.  But  this  form  of  agricul 
tural  organization  took  up  fewer  of  the  negroes  in  Virginia  than 
it  did  further  South,  and  in  the  other  sections  of  the  state  the 
bulk  of  them  continued  to  work  for  wages ;  for  the  unreliable 
could  find  no  other  form  of  employment,  and  many  of  the  best 
of  them  preferred  to  work  for  wages  paid  at  the  end  of  each 
week  or  month.  The  planters  who  were  not  forced  by  financial 
difficulties  to  pursue  some  other  method  kept  their  old  negroes 


11.  Shurz,  "An  Impartial  View." 

12.  For  a  good  description  of  the  variations  of  the  metayage  sys 
tem   see   an   article   by   Flemming   in   "The   South   in   the    Building   of 
the  Nation,"  Vol.  VI. 


28  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP   PAPERS 

with  them  and  paid  them  wages  until  parts  of  the  plantations 
were  sold  off.  These  negroes  worked  under  supervision  and 
received  from  $5  per  month  immediately  after  the  War  13  to  $8 
or  $10,  a  decade  later,14  and  were  "found,"  i.  e.  furnished  with 
rations.  The  regular  laborers  and  the  croppers  were  usually 
given  a  house,  a  garden,  poultry,  pasture  and  other  privileges 
which,  as  is  the  case  with  the  modern  "service  basket,"  tended  to 
increase  the  real  wages  to  a  point  considerably  higher  than  the 
nominal  wages.  In  the  opinion  of  many  writers  these  numerous 
privileges  which  afforded  the  necessities  of  life  were,  indeed, 
one  of  the  principal  causes  for  the  inefficiency  of  both  the  crop 
pers  and  laborers  of  the  period,  and  in  so  far  as  they  removed 
the  incentive  for  economic  exertion  this  is  undoubtedly  true. 

The  sudden  emancipation  of  the  negro  and  the  consequent  de 
moralization  of  the  working  force  was,  in  short,  a  serious  handi 
cap  to  the  negro  himself  as  well  as  to  the  industries  of  the  state. 
During  the  Reconstruction  Period  the  negroes  were  deluded  with 
the  idea  that  they  were  the  wards  of  the  Federal  Government ; 15 
they  were  led  to  expect  "forty  acres  and  -a  mule"  as  a  gift  from 
Washington,  and  the  sense  of  political  importance  which  they 
acquired  did  much  to  demoralize  them  as  agricultural  laborers, 
and  is  in  part  responsible  for  the  fact  that  in  1870  negroes  com 
prised  45.2%  of  the  urban  population  of  the  state.  The  same 
influence  fostered  their  innate  characteristic  of  improvidence, 
and  those  who  did  acquire  small  tracts  of  land,  either  as  orna 
ments  or  as  means  to  economic  independence,  were  apt  to  be 
prevented  from  accumulating  by  a  parasitic  following  of  kin. 
As  long  as  these  influences  were  present  the  white  counties  of 
the  state  benefited  in  contrast  with  the  black,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  negro  had  settled  down  to  the  new  conditions  that  the 
latter  could  again  begin  to  prosper. 


13.  Godkin,    "The    South    as    It    Is"    in    Hart's    "American    History 
Told  by  Contemporaries,"   IV,   450. 

14.  Bruce,  "The  Plantation  Negro  as  a  Free  Man,"  197. 

15.  Godkin  asserts  that  "The  very  large  majority  of  those  claiming 
to  be  destitute  might   easily   support  life   without  taxing  the   charity 
of    the    government."      "The    South    as    It    Is"    in    Hart's    "American 
History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"  VI,  449. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  29 

Virginia  was  re-admitted  to  the  Union  in  1870,  and  this  was 
the  beginning  of  the  new  adjustment.  In  1878  President  Hayes 
withdrew  the  troops  from  the  South,  and  at  this  time  negro  rule 
under  unprincipled  adventurers  came  to  an  end  and  the  "natural, 
inevitable  ascendency  of  the  whites,  the  responsible  class,  was 
established."  1G  Now,  with  the  external  influences  withdrawn, 
the  economic  forces  \vhich  had  been  gathering  strength  for  the 
future  were  unhampered  and  the  result  was  the  rise  of  industry 
and  a  general  re-shifting  of  labor.  Negroes  were  prohibited 
by  their  inefficiency  from  entering  the  new  industries  except  to 
a  very  limited  extent,  but  as  we  have  seen,  they  entered  some  of 
the  allied  trades  in  considerable  numbers  and  about  this  time 
began  to  acquire  land. 

The  total  value  of  farming  lands  in  the  South  declined  48% 
between  1860  and  1870,17  which,  of  course,  put  rural  lands  at  a 
price  advantageous  to  prospective  buyers  until  affairs  were  back 
in  their  normal  condition  in  the  eighties.  Bruce  declares  that 
during  this  period  the  negro  laborers  were  perhaps  "in  receipt 
of  more  money  (in  the  form  of  wages)  than  any  other  class 
of  the  community ;  and  if  they  had  saved  even  a  portion  of  their 
earnings  it  could  have  been  invested  to  the  greatest  advantage  in 
the  land,  which  the  revolution  in  the  general  economic  system, 
produced  by  the  civil  war,  threw  upon  the  market.  *  *  * 
There  were  few  owners  of  estates  off  the  watercourses  who 
would  not  have  consented  to  sell  many  acres,  in  order  to  contract 
the  size  of  properties  that  had  always  been  too  large,  as  well  as 
to  obtain  cash;  and  yet  such  opportunities  of  improving  their 
condition  at  the  very  time  that  these  opportunities  have  been  fair 
est  have  not  been  utilized  by  the  masses  of  the  blacks,  not  be 
cause  they  have  failed  to  observe  them,  but  because  they  have 
not  had  the  qualities  to  provide  the  purchase  money  that  was 
necessary."  18 

It  is  true  that  the  negroes  failed  to  take  advantage  of  the  cheap 
lands  of  the  Reconstruction  Period,  but  the  reasons,  it  would 


16.  Woodrow  Wilson,  "Division  and  Reunion,"   273. 

17.  Bogart,  "Economic  History  of  the  United  States,"  314. 

18.  Bruce,   "The    Plantation    Negro   as   a    Free    Man,"    222. 


30  PHELPS-STOK£S    FELLOWSHIP   PAPERS 

appear,  are  not  so  easily  found  as  this  would  indicate.  In  the 
first  place  there  were  the  disturbing  influences  which  came  from 
the  outside.  These  forces,  when  taken  together  with  the  negro's 
natural  traits  of  improvidence  and  carelessness,  kept  him  from 
discovering  his  best  move  and  from  looking  into  the  future.  It 
has  been  asserted  that  by  saving  his  earnings  the  negro  could 
have  bought  his  "forty  acres  and  a  mule"  during  this  period  of 
depressed  land  values,  but  for  a  race  of  the  negro's  inherent 
qualities  it  was,  indeed,  more  natural  to  expect  that  he  should 
wait  in  the  hope  of  receiving  it  as  a  gift.  Beside  such  disturbing 
factors  there  was  the  dense  ignorance  of  business  transactions 
and  economic  values.  Although  they  occasionally  bought  an 
acre  or  two  the  negroes  had  no  conception  whatever  of  the  eco 
nomic  possibilities  of  land  and  their  knowledge  of  business  in 
general  was  practically  nil.  Furthermore,  and  of  the  greatest 
importance,  is  the  fact  that  money  was  scarce.  The  negroes,  just 
as  the  whites,  did  not  buy  land  during  this  period  for  the  very 
same  reason  that  land  was  cheap.  The  poor  whites  did  not  begin 
to  acquire  land  until  after  1880  when  the  small  farm  movement 
began — they  had  missed  the  same  opportunity  to  acquire  cheap 
land,  and  largely  for  the  same  reason.  Added  to  these  factors  is 
the  natural  contentedness  of  mind  of  the  negro  which  makes 
him  live  in  perfect  happiness  amid  surroundings  that  would  be 
revolting  to  more  highly  developed  sensibilities. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  negro  had  a  more  or  less  natural 
inclination,  acquired  during  slavery,  toward  agriculture  and  when 
the  obstacles  were  removed  he  began  acquiring  land  at  a  remark 
able  rate.  Statistics  are  not  available,  but  from  the  testimony 
of  people  familiar  with  conditions  at  that  time  and  from  a  few 
records  derived  from  county  books,  the  tide  turned  about  1880 
after  economic  conditions  had  again  become  fairly  stable.  The 
golden  opportunity  for  the  negro  with  respect  to  his  securing 
valuable  tracts,  had  indeed  passed,  but  Bruce's  prophecy,  made 
twenty  years  after  the  war,  that  the  negro  would  not  acquire 
more  property  is  not  borne  out  by  the  facts.  "An  increase  in 
the  number  of  small  white  planters,"  he  says,  "will  diminish  the 
ability  of  the  negro  to  buy  estates,  because  such  increase  implies 
an  advance  in  the  price  of  land,  upon  w7hich  the  prosperity  of 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  31 

the  white  people  must  always  rest.  This  will  only  render  it  more 
difficult  than  ever  for  the  blacks  to  acquire  it.  If  few  were  able 
to  make  purchases  in  the  period  of  the  greatest  depression  of 
prices,  that  is,  in  the  course  of  the  last  two  decades,  the  proba 
bility  is  that  still  fewer  will  be  able  to  do  so  in  the  future,  on  ac 
count  of  the  general  rise  in  valuations  that  will  attend  an  im 
provement  in  the  condition  of  the  whites.  So  far  as  can  be  ob 
served  the  race  is  not  more  economical  after  twenty  years  of 
freedom  than  it  was  after  five,  or  even  ten;  and  its  habits  are 
not  likely  to  change  with  the  progress  of  time."  19 

Probably  if  Virginia  had  remained  solely  an  agricultural  state 
this  prediction  would  have  been  nearer  true,  but  with  the  rise 
of  industry  twenty  years  after  the  war  there  occurred  a  general 
shifting  of  occupations,  and  since  the  greater  efficiency  of  the 
white  man  forces  the  negro  out  wherever  he  cares  to  compete, 
this  naturally  determined  the  course  of  the  negroes.  Under  nor 
mal  conditions  they  would  have  turned  to  the  land  and  this  fact 
only  aided  them.  The  proportion  of  the  total  negro  male  popu 
lation  engaged  in  farming  and  agricultural  pursuits  increased 
from  50%  to  51%  between  1890  and  i!910,  but  there  was  a  de 
crease  among  the  laborers  and  an  increase  among  the  owners. 
Those  engaged  as  carpenters  decreased  in  the  same  period  from 
2,017  to  1,905;  sawmill  operatives  from  2,541  to  695;  tobacco 
factory  operatives  from  4,419  to  1,918;  blacksmiths  from  1,554 
to  1,005;  railroad  employees,  however,  increased  during  the 
same  period  from  7,648  to  9,029,  and  miners  and  quarrymen 
increased  from  1,700  to  2,626.  There  was  an  actual  increase  of 
negroes  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  of  19,357,  thus  their 
increase  was  both  actual  and  relative  to  the  increase  in  the  total 
number  of  gainfully  employed  negro  males.  The  whites  in  ag 
riculture  have  decreased  proportionately  to  their  total  population, 
being  drawn  away  into  factories,  lumbering,  milling,  railroading, 
and  other  skilled  occupations  where  the  negro  is  largely  excluded. 
In  farming  the  competition  is  less  severe,  and  consequently  with 
this  re-distributing  of  the  population  the  negroes  have  again 
taken  their  place  as  agricultural  workers  and  have  of  late  years 


19.  Ibid,  223. 


32  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP   PAPERS 

been  increasing  actually  both  as  landowners  and  as  laborers. 
Thus,  in  spite  of  the  increase  of  small  white  farmers  and  the 
general  rise  in  the  value  of  land  there  has  been  a  general  increase 
in  negro  rural  land  ownership  since  1880. 

That  the  negroes  have,  since  the  disturbing  influences  of  the 
Reconstruction  Period,  made  substantial  progress  in  the  acquisi 
tion  of  title  to  land  seems  to  be  shown  conclusively  by  the  figures 
and  that  the  rate  of  increase  is  progressive  seems  to  be  shown  by 
a  comparison  of  the  figures  taken  from  the  1900  and  1910  cen 
suses.  A  computation  of  the  rates  of  increase  in  land  ownership 
for  the  two  races  gives  results  which  are  startling  and  which  have 
been  made  the  basis  of  various  papers  illustrating  the  great  prog 
ress  of  the  negro  over  the  whites  in  acquiring  land,  but  which 
commendable  as  is  the  real  progress,  have  been  misleading.  To 
illustrate,  let  us  say  that  in  a  given  community  there  are  five 
thousand  people  of  each  race.  Twenty  of  the  negroes  are  land 
holders,  and  two  thousand  of  the  whites  are  landholders.  Now, 
if  during  a  given  period  the  actual  increase  of  negro  farmers  is 
forty,  the  rate  of  increase  is  20Q(/C  and  if  there  is  an  increase 
of  one  hundred  white  owners,  the  rate  is  Sc/c-  That  this  is  mis 
leading  is  obvious,  but  the  same  methods  of  calculation  have 
characterized  many  recent  papers  on  the  subject  of  negro  prog 
ress.  For  this  reason  the  following  tables  and  those  elsewhere 
in  this  paper  include  the  absolute  as  well  as  the  relative  figures, 
which,  while  hardly  as  miraculous,  show  a  substantial  progress, 
and  one  of  which  the  race  can  well  afford  to  be  proud. 

TABLE  VI:  NEGRO  FARMS  AND  ACREAGE. 


Negro   farms             .    . 

1900 
44,834 

1910 
48,114 

Per  cent, 
of  total 

Per  cent, 
increase 

7.3% 

Owned 

26  566 

32  228 

67% 

21.3% 

Rented*                 ..      .. 

18,030 

15,886 

33% 

—  14.6% 

Number    acres     

2,329,118 

2,238,220 

—.5% 

Owned     .            .  . 

1,031,331 

1,381,223 

61.7% 

4.8% 

Rented    

1,197,787 

856,997 

38.3% 

—29.5% 

Average    size 

49  7 

46  5 

—  6.9% 

Owned 

42  9 

Rented    

53  9 

*180  managers  operate  farms  averaging  150  acres   each. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  33 

The  figures  for  the  white  farmers  show  an  increase  of  from 
87,598  in  1900  to  101,436  in  1910  or  10.4%,  with  a  total  increase 
in  white  population  of  16.5%.  For  negroes  the  reverse  tendency 
is  true,  farmers  increased  faster  than  population,  the  respective 
figures  being  7.3%  and  1.6%.  In  some  of  the  counties  we  find 
this  even  more  true  than  in  the  state  in  general  as  is  shown  by 
the  following  table : 

TABLE     VII:     RATIOS     OF    FARM    AND    POPULATION    IN 
CREASE. 

Excess  of 

County                                    Negro  pop.       Negro  farms  farm  rate 

Gloucester    11.8  decrease     1.6  decrease  10.2% 

Middlesex    2.1    increase    11.6    increase  9.5 

Albemarle     6.9  decrease     4.5  decrease  2.4 

Prince    Edward    15.5  decrease  12.     decrease  3.5 

Warwick     16.2  increase  171.     increase  154.8 

Princess    Anne    2.3    increase      9.      increase  6.7 

The  case  of  Warwick  county  is  an  apt  illustration  of  the  dan 
ger  of  rates  of  increase, — here  practically  all  of  the  negro  prop 
erty  has  been  acquired  recently,  and  although  it  is  of  a  smaller 
amount  than  that  in  Albemarle  it  appears  to  a  very  much  greater 
advantage.  'But  nevertheless  the  figures  are  significant  because 
they  show  that  in  these  counties,  which  are  fairly  typical  of  the 
Tidewater  and  Piedmont  sections,  while  in  some  instances  both 
the  population  and  number  of  farmers  are  decreasing,  there  is 
always  an  increase  in  the  ratio  of  farmers  to  total  population. 
For  the  state  as  a  whole  negro  farmers  increased  4.56  times  as 
fast  as  their  total  population,  while  white  farmers  increased  only 
.63  times  as  fast  as  their  population.  The  ratio  is  as  1  to  7.2. 
These  figures  are  important,  not  as  showing  that  the  negroes  are 
making  greater  progress  in  this  direction  than  are  the  whites,  but 
as  showing  that  they  are  overcoming  their  shortage  as  farm  own 
ers.  In  1910  they  constituted  24.8  per  cent,  of  the  farm  owners 
of  the  state,  while  their  population  was  32.6%  of  total.  It  is 
reasonable  to  expect,  however,  that  at  the  present  rate  of  in 
crease  the  number  of  negro  farms  will  soon  occupy  a  ratio  pro 
portionate  to  their  population. 

—3 


34  PHELPS-STOKKS  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

TABLE  VIII:  VALUE  OF  FARMS. 

Negro  farms  1900  1910  increase 

Value    land     $14,481,710       $32,553,640  124.8 

Value  buildings    5,550,740  12,670,864  128.3 

Value    implements     931,280  1,852,503  98.6 

Value   stock   and   poultry 3,615,286  7,671,900  112.5 

Total    value    farm    property 24,529,016  54,748,907  123.2 

Value    per    acre    6.50  14.54  123.7 

Value   per   farm    547  1,138  108. 

The  value  of  land  for  the  whites  increased  from  $186,133,370 
to  $362,105,272;  buildings,  from  $65,462,380  to  $124,728,286; 
implements  and  machinery,  from  $8,979,760  to  $16,263,380;  stock 
from  $38,411,451  to  $67,219,538.  There  was  an  increase  in  the 
value  of  all  white  farm  property  of  90.7(/0  while  land  increased 
from  $10.53  to  $20.98  per  acre  or  99.2%.  The  greater  increase 
in  the  value  of  negro  land  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
negroes  bought  the  cheapest  land  in  sight, — marginal  no-rent 
land, — which  could  not  depreciate  in  value,  while  most  of  the 
property  belonging  to  whites  was  subject  both  to  depreciation 
and  to  appreciation.  The  increase  in  value  of  equipment  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  small  farms  normally  have  more  improvements 
per  acre  and  these  the  negroes  have  only  acquired  recently. 

TABLE  IX:  RELATIVE  SIZE  OF  WHITE  AND  NEGRO 
FARMS,  BOTH  RENTED  AND  OWNED. 


Per  cent,  of 

Per  cent,  of 

White   al 

il  w.  farmers 

all  n.  farmers 

Total 

Under  3  acres.  .  . 
3  to  9  acres  

183 
10,485 

.1 

7.6 

.5 

36.3 

277 
17,464 

10  to  19  acres 

11  976 

8.7 

20.8 

22,055 

20  to  49  acres 

25  925 

19.1 

34.1 

42,390 

50  to  99  acres 

29  657 

21.7 

18. 

38,342 

100  to  174  acres 

28  831 

21.2 

8.6 

32,997 

175  to  259  acres. 

13,893 

10.2 

2.6 

14,963 

260  to  499  acres. 
500  to  999  acres 

10,608 
3,338 

7.8 
2.4 

1.1 
2 

11,138 
3,450 

1,000  and  over... 

974 

.7 

.03 

992 

RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP 


35 


Acres. 


From  the  above  figures  and  their  graphical  representation  the 
great  advantage  of  the  white  farmers  in  point  of  size  of  farms 
is  apparent.  The  difference  is  due  in  part,  however,  to  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  large  white  holdings  still  survive  in  Virginia, 
in  spite  of  the  tendency,  which  has  been  seen  from  a  previous 
table,  for  all  farms  to  decrease  rather  than  increase  in  acreage. 
The  graph  illustrates  strikingly  the  two  types  of  negro  holdings : 
those  which  are  large  enough  for  real  farms  and  those  which 
make  no  pretense  at  being  anything  but  rural  homes.  The  negro 
holdings  are  apt  to  be  of  one  class  or  the  other  and  those  half 
way  between  are,  as  the  graph  shows,  relatively  few  in  number. 


CHAPTER  II  I. 
THE:  PRESENT  CONDITIONS. 

In  the  preceding  discussions  the  general  status  of  agriculture 
in  Virginia  has  been  considered  and  we  have  entered,  in  some 
detail,  into  the  matter  of  the  acquisition  of  rural  property  by 
the  negroes  in  the  state.  From  this  we  may  now  pass  to  a  brief 
survey  of  conditions  among  the  rural,  and  especially  land-own 
ing  negroes  as  they  exist  today  in  the  several  sections  of  the 
state.  Conditions  vary  considerably,  as  will  be  seen,  in  the 
different  sections  of  the  state  and  must  be  considered  geograph 
ically  if  the  study  is  to  be  of  value;  the  problem  varies  from 
neighborhood  to  neighborhood.  "It  is  one  thing  in  those  re 
gions  of  light  and  sandy  soil  where  the  farms  of  the  white  man 
and  the  negro  adjoin,  where  the  white  man's  farm  is  cultivated 
by  his  own  labor,  where  the  negro  is  not  to  any  large  extent  a 
dependent  class,  and  where  the  relation  of  master  and  servant 
exists  but  to  a  slight  degree;  it  is  another  thing  where  the  ne 
gro  exists  in  large  numbers  as  a  working  class  upon  the  planta 
tion  of  the  white  man."  1 

Among  the  negro  rural  inhabitants,  other  than  the  day  la 
borers,  there  are  three  distinct  classes ;  renters,  farm  owners, 
and  owners  of  small  rural  tracts  who  have  some  other  principal 
means  of  livelihood.  Renters  comprise  about  one-third  of  the 
negro  farmers  of  the  state  and,  as  a  class,  are  inferior  to  the 
owners.  The  obvious  explanation  is  that  by  the  very  fact  of 
being  landowners  this  class  has  proven  its  superiority  in  self- 
control,  prudence,  and  the  other  qualities  which  may  lead  to  suc 
cessful  management.  Many  of  the  renters,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  apt  to  be  inferior  even  to  the  day  laborers,  since  the  free 
dom  of  the  position  makes  it  one  that  is  held  in  high  esteem 
by  the  most  worthless  of  the  negroes.  Renting  is,  in  short,  a 
retreat  for  the  indolent,  on  the  one  hand,  and  an  opportunity 


1.  E.  G.  Murphy,  "Problems  of  the  Present  South,"  155. 

36 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  37 

to  make  the  initial  steps  to  economic  independence,  on  the  other. 
Thus  while  the  renting  class  contains  many  who,  by  thrift  and 
industry,  will  gradually  become  free-holders,  it  is  as  a  class  in 
ferior  in  stability  and  efficiency  to  the  owners.  The  farm  own 
ers  are  apt  to  be  of  simpler  tastes,  regular,  and  more  purposeful. 

After  the  War  the  class  which  first  became  landowners  were 
those  who  had  been  sub-overseers  on  the  plantations,  and  the 
training  that  they  had  had  in  bearing  to  some  degree  the  weight 
of  responsibility  served  them  in  good  stead  when  emancipation 
threw  them  upon  their  own  resources.  Having  been  trained  in 
simple  standards  of  life  they  showed  no  inclination  to  waste 
their  earnings  and  were  thus  able  to  save  enough  from  their 
wages  to  purchase  at  low  prices  small  tracts  of  land  on  the 
ridges  that  extend  back  from  the  water  courses.  The  lowlands 
were  held  at  a  higher  price  and  not  even  the  more  thrifty  ne 
groes  could  buy  this  land.  The  characteristic  negro  farm  today 
is  of  thin  soil  and  removed  from  the  streams,  but  even  this  land 
with  the  aid  of  artificial  manure  is  capable  of  raising  a  fine  qual 
ity  of  tobacco  and  very  fair  corn,  and  many  of  the  negro  tracts 
are  in  an  excellent  state  of  cultivation  despite  their  inferiority. 
An  occasional  negro  farm  will  be  found  consisting  of  a  hundred 
acres  or  more  all  in  good  cultivation  and  as  well  equipped  in 
the  matter  of  outhouses,  implements,  and  stock  as  those  of  their 
average  white  neighbors. 

The  third  class  of  the  negro  rural  inhabitants,  to  \vhich  ref 
erence  has  been  made,  own  usually  from  two  to  ten  acres  with 
ordinarily  not  over  three  acres  in  cultivation  and  derive  their 
principal  means  of  support  either  by  renting,  farm  laboring,  or 
in  some  one  of  the  various  semi-skilled  trades.  In  the  Piedmont 
and  Tidewater  sections  of  the  state  considerable  settlements  of 
such  negroes  will  be  found  at  a  distance  of  from  two  to  four 
miles  from  many  of  the  towns  and  smaller  cities.  It  is  not 
possible  to  state  accurately,  but  from  the  statistics  of  size  of 
holdings,  it  may  reasonably  be  estimated  that  three-fourths  of 
the  negro  free-holders  are  of  this  class. 

While  all  of  the  rural  negroes,  therefore,  are  not  farmers  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  there  are  many  economic  advan 
tages  which  come  to  them  that  are  not  possible  for  their  urban 


38  PHELPS-STOKKS    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

brethren.  In  the  first  place,  and  contrary  to  the  facts  in  the 
cotton  and  rice  districts  of  the  far  South,2  practically  all  of  these 
small  freeholders  raise  a  garden  and  cultivate  for  their  own 
use  corn,  cabbage,  snaps,  onions,  melons,  and  other  vegetables. 
Many  of  them,  also,  have  a  few  fruit  trees  and  can  some  con 
siderable  amount  of  fruit  for  winter  use.  Most  of  the  families, 
furthermore,  keep  a  few  chickens — albeit  they  are  often  of  the 
"dunghill"  variety — which  help  to  diminish  the  cost  of  the  daily 
menu,  and  by  raising  a  few  acres  of  corn  they  are  enabled  to 
keep  a  few  head  of  stock,  and  a  pig  can  be  fed  on  the  refuse 
from  the  table.  That  many  of  the  negroes  do  take  advantage 
of  such  economies  is  obvious  to  the  most  casual  observer;  one 
negro  informant  told  the  writer  that  he  netted  an  average  of 
$10  per  month  by  breeding  a  jack  which  he  fed  from  his  own 
little  patch  of  corn.  On  the  other  hand,  few  negroes  make  the 
most  of  the  opportunities  afforded  by  a  few  acres  of  land.  For 
instance,  while  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  a  cow  on  a  negro's  place 
and  the  calves  regularly  sold,  it  is  rare  that  they  use  milk  and 
when  butter  is  used  at  all  it  is  apt  to  be  bought  at  the  country 
store.  It  can  not  be  said  as  true  of  the  race,  that  they  are 
inclined  to  take  advantage  of  these  economies.  It  is  inherent 
in  the  character  of  the  negro  to  fail  to  utilize  those  economies 
which  make  farming  so  profitable  to  the  Chinese  and  Japanese 
in  California  and  to  the  Italians  in  the  South.  A  correlative 
characteristic  is  the  negro's  tendency  toward  extravagance  which 
is  well  illustrated  by  the  presence  of  various  useless  things  in 
the  homes.  It  would,  indeed,  seem  that  the  limit  of  what  they 
will  buy  is  only  determined  by  the  extent  of  their  credit. 

Tenants,  and  sometimes  owners,  in  the  tobacco  regions  usu 
ally  find  it  necessary  to  arrange  for  advances  in  food  and  cloth 
ing  at  the  country  store  until  harvest.  Money  is  seldom  lent 
directly  by  the  banks,  but  merchants,  who  are  often  also  tobacco 
buyers,  make  such  advances  as  are  necessary  and  take  a  lien  on 
the  crop  as  security.  In  counties  such  as  Albemarle,  however, 
where  agriculture  is  diversified  and  where  the  principle  products 
are  grain  and  stock  this  practice  is  reduced  to  a  minimum  and 


2.  The   same   condition   that  is   found   in  the   far   South  is   more   or 
less  true  of  the  tobacco  raising  counties  on  the  South  Side. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  39 

the  operations  are,  as  a  rule,  carried  on  on  a  strictly  cash  basis. 
The  owners  of  rural  property  with  some  other  principal  means 
of  support  rarely  ask  for  credit  for  more  than  a  week's  dura 
tion  and  settlement  is  regularly  made  on  Saturdays.  Many  of 
this  class  in  Albemarle  have  said,  with  no  small  degree  of  pride, 
that  they  could  have  credit  if  so  desired,  but  that  it  was  better 
to  "keep  up."  And  then  they  have  added  that  they  have  not 

borrowed  "mo'an  a  quarter  since  Mr. died,"  or  "when 

Mr.  -  -  was  living  I  used  to  borrow."  The  disadvantages 
of  the  crop  lien  system  in  the  districts  where  the  great  staple 
is  raised  have  often  been  fully  discussed  and  it  is  not  necessary 
to  go  into  this  subject  here.3  It  is  enough  to  say  that  in  Vir 
ginia,  where  more  diversification  occurs,  this  system  which 
fosters  the  negro's  natural  tendency  toward  improvidence  has 
been  reduced  to  a  minimum  and,  in  many  cases,  by  the  negroes' 
own  choice.  The  more  fundamental  cause,  however,  is  the  fact 
that  the  more  frequent  receipts  from  the  sale  of  farm  products 
or  from  wages  renders  it  unnecessary  for  the  merchant  to  ex 
tend  long  time  credit.  Long  credit  is,  on  the  other  hand,  in 
herent  in  the  agricultural  system  which  depends  on  one  great 
staple  and  this  is  one  of  its  principal  disadvantages. 

We  have  already  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  question 
of  the  welfare  of  the  negro  is  a  different  proposition  in  each 
locality.  Indeed,  no  question  of  sociology  can  be  isolated  from 
its  environment  of  time  and  place  and  be  stated  in  absolute  and 
general  terms  without  the  danger  of  reaching  erroneous  conclu 
sions.  From  these  general  considerations,  then,  let  us  pass  to 
a  brief  discussion  of  the  actual  conditions  as  they  are  found  in 
the  three  principal  divisions  of  the  state  of  Virginia. 

West  of  the  Piedmont  Section  the  negro  population  is  rel 
atively  small  and  does  not  present  any  serious  problem.  In  all 
of  the  counties  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge  there  were  in  1900  only 
61, 939 4  negroes  and  in  1910  this  number  had  been  reduced  to 
54,555,  or  13.5%.  They  constituted,  in  this  whole  section,  but 
10.5%  of  the  total  population,  a  proportion  that  is  exceeded  for 
the  United  States  as  a  whole  (10.7%)  and  by  such  states  as 


3.  See   W.   D.   Weatherford,   "Present    Forces   in    Negro    Progress." 

4.  See  appendix  for  tables  of  population  by  sections. 


40  PHELPS-STOKES  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

Delaware,  Maryland,  Texas,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  which 
are  not  regarded  as  negro  states.  In  some  of  the  counties  of 
this  section  the  ratio  of  negro  to  total  population  falls  as  low 
as  .03%  (Buchanan),  2%  (Bland),  1%  (Carroll),  .08%  (Dick- 
enson),  etc.  From  this  it  is  apparent  that  in  this  section  of  the 
state  where  a  different  agricultural  system  was  evolved  in  early 
times,  the  negro  question  is  an  entirely  different  one  and  the 
proportion  is  so  small  as  to  admit  of  an  entirely  different  pro 
gram. 

Negro  farmers  in  this  whole  section  totalled  but  1,993 — or 
about  one  farmer  to  every  27  of  the  total  negro  population,  a 
ratio  which  is  hardly  half  of  that  in  either  the  Piedmont  or  Tide 
water  sections.  It  is,  of  course,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  negroes 
in  this  section  who  are  not  engaged  in  domestic  service  are  either 
in  mining  or  lumbering.  But  when  we  come  to  the  individual 
farmer  we  find  conditions  here  more  favorable  than  in  either 
of  the  other  sections:  in  this  section  they  owned  1,616,  or  81%, 
of  the  1,993  farms  that  they  operated,  a  percentage  ahead  by 
about  15%  of  that  in  either  of  the  other  principal  sections.  Ac 
cording  to  the  most  accurate  estimate  that  can  be  made  the  to 
tal  value  of  their  farm  holdings  in  this  section  is  $4,064,000 5 
or  about  $61.90  per  acre  for  land  and  buildings,  which  is  about 
double  that  in  the  Tidewater  and  more  than  double  that  in  the 
Piedmont  section.  This  fact  is  probably  to  be  accounted  for  by 
the  relative  smallness  of  the  negro  holdings  in  this  section  which 
means  that  those  who  buy  at  all  are  apt  to  be  of  the  best  class. 
In  this  section  in  1914  negroes  owned  65,561  acres,  or,  in  32 
of  the  100  counties  negroes  owned  less  than  4%  of  their  total 
acreage  in  the  state  and  but  .8%  of  the  total  farm  acreage  in 
the  section.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  negroes  make 
greater  progress  in  sections  where  their  proportion  to  the  whites 
is  small,  6  and  this  is  borne  out  by  conditions  in  this  section. 


5.  See  Appendix  for  the   derivation  of  this  estimate. 

6.  Careful  investigations   carried   on   by   R.   P.    Brooks   for   Georgia 
show  that  the  proportion  of  negro  land-owners  is  greater  where  two- 
thirds   of  the   population   is   white   and    smallest   where   two-thirds    is 
black.     "A  Local  Study  of  the  Race  Problem."     Pol.  Sc.  Quar.  June, 
1911. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  41 

The  same  is  true  in  many  of  the  individual  counties,  where  it  is 
seen  that  the  black  districts  tend  to  grow  blacker  and  poorer, 
while  when  under  the  influence  of  the  whites  the  negroes  pro 
gress  better. 

In  this  section  the  smaller  number  of  negroes  in  the  rural 
population  makes  education  for  them  more  difficult  but,  generally 
speaking,  the  schools  in  this  section  are  as  good  as  elsewhere 
and  they  seem  to  be  progressing.  In  Smythe  County,  which  is 
typical  of  the  Southwest,  there  is  a  school  population  of  6,143,  7 
of  whom  5,813  are  white  and  330  are  colored.  The  total  num 
ber  of  whites  enrolled  is  4,848  or  83 %  :  and  the  total  number 
of  negroes  is  226  or  70%.  The  small  negro  percentage  is  prob 
ably  to  be  explained  here,  as  elsewhere,  by  the  fact  that  few 
negro  children  above  the  age  of  fifteen  attend.  The  average 
monthly  salary  for  the  negro  teachers  who  manage  the  six 
schools  in  the  county  is  $40  for  males  and  $28  for  females. 
Some  of  the  negro  schools  in  the  county  are  aided  by  private 
subscription  to  continue  for  a  longer  term  and  the  average  term 
is  seven  months,  which  is  only  about  two  weeks  less  than  that 
for  the  white  schools. 

Turning,  now,  from  a  section  where  the  negroes  are  already 
few  and  are  growing  less  numerous  to  one  where  they  form 
nearly  half  of  the  population  and  are  increasing,  it  will  be  natural 
if  we  find  conditions  considerably  different.  In  the  thirty-three 
counties  which  were  arbitrarily  selected  as  the  Tidewater  Sec 
tion  8  there  were  in  1900  some  221,367  negroes,  and  in  1910 
this  number  had  increased  to  221,387.  In  the  latter  year  ne 
groes  comprised  49.4%  of  the  population  exclusive  of  the  in 
corporated  cities  and  in  some  counties,  such  as  Charles  City, 
Caroline,  Cumberland,  Essex,  Isle  of  Wight,  Middlesex,  etc., 
they  comprised  over  half  of  the  population.  In  this  section, 
therefore,  as  far  as  the  ratio  of  population  is  concerned,  the 
race  question  reaches  something  like  the  same  degree  of  com 
plexity  that  it  does  in  the  Gulf  states.  There  are,  however, 


7.  For  these  figures  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  B.  E.  Copenhaver,  Sup't 
of  Schools  for  Smythe  County. 

8.  See  tables  in  appendix. 


42  PHELPS-STOKKS    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

local  conditions  in  the  Tidewater  which  alter  the  situation  and  it 
is,  rather,  in  the  South  Side  of  the  Piedmont  Section  where  con 
ditions  resemble  those  that  have  been  described  by  Mr.  A.  .H 
Stone,  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  etc.,  in  the  lower  South. 

In  1910  there  were  in  this  section  18,654  negro  farms,  12,735 
or  68.1%  of  which  were  operated  by  their  owners,  and  there 
was  one  negro  farmer  to  every  twelve  of  total  negro  population. 
This  is  a  proportion  over  twice  as  great  as  in  the  western  part 
of  the  state.  The  negro  owned  acreage  last  year  was  600,809 
or  11.5%  of  all  the  farm  acreage  in  the  section  and  the  total 
value  of  all  negro  farm  property  was  $18,056,000.9  If  we  ac 
cept  the  estimate  that  at  the  close  of  the  war  the  negroes  in 
this  section  owned  6,000  acres  worth  $90,000 10  remarkable  prog 
ress  is  shown.  The  average  value  of  land  and  improvements 
per  acre  for  negroes  is  about  $30  which  is  about  $5  less  than 
the  same  average  for  the  whites.  The  difference  in  land  value, 
however,  is  probably  considerably  greater  than  this  since  on 
account  of  the  relative  smallness  of  negro  holdings,  the  build 
ings  are  worth  more  per  acre  than  those  of  the  whites.  Actual 
conditions  in  this  section  can  probably  be  best  understood  by 
studying  some  of  the  typical  counties. 

Gloucester,  in  Eastern  Virginia,  has  a  population  of  12,477 
of  which  5,907,  or  nearly  half,  are  negroes.  In  1900  the  ne 
groes  were  in  the  majority.  While  this  county  has  been  se 
lected  as  typical  of  the  section  it  is,  in  some  respects,  a  little 
better  off  than  the  others.  In  regard  to  illiteracy,  for  instance, 
the  1910  census  shows  1,147  or  27.4%  illiterates  among  the  ne 
groes,  while  in  Hanover  the  same  percentage  is  33.  The  effect 
of  communication  with  the  outside  world  by  water  and  early 
contact  with  the  Hampton  Institute  account  for  Gloucester's  ad 
vantage  over  its  neighboring  counties  in  those  qualities  which 
have  lead  to  material  progress.  But,  on  the  whole,  this  county 
is  typical  of  the  more  advanced  counties  of  the  section  and  what 
is  said  of  it  is  applicable  in  little  less  degree  to  the  others. 


9.  See  appendix. 

10.  Walker,   "Negro   Property   Holding   in   Tidewater,   Va." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  43 

In  an  interesting  little  study,11  Thomas  C.  Walker  estimates 
that  at  the  close  of  the  War  there  were  537  acres  of  land  owned 
by  the  free  negroes  in  Gloucester  County.  In  1880  "there  were 
195  negroes  who  owned  about  2,300  acres  of  land."  The  Audit 
or's  Report  for  1912  shows  a  negro  acreage  of  19,772  acres,  and 
by  1914  this  number  had  increased  to  20,292  assessed  at  about 
$145,000,  and,  with  improvements,  $270,000.  Taking  the  ratio 
between  assessed  value  and  the  value  based  on  sales  at  about 
one-third  this  makes  the  real  value  about  $800,900.12  Prior  to 
1880  says  Walker,  there  were  no  buildings  and  improvements 
worth  counting  as  most  of  them  lived  in  log  cabins,  but  at 
present  they  are  worth  some  $3 50,000. 

The  value  of  the  negro  farm  lands  in  this  county  is  increas 
ing  materially  each  year  with  the  better  knowledge  of  agricul 
tural  methods.  Walker  thinks  that  "the  greatest  agency  em 
ployed  in  the  development  of  the  Tidewater  counties  * 
in  the  education  and  material  condition  of  the  negroes  is  the 
Hampton  Normal  and  Agricultural  Institute."  For  some  forty- 
five  years  this  school  has  been  sending  its  graduates  into  these 
counties,  and  other  parts  of  the  state  and  the  South,  where  they 
have,  as  a  rule,  cultivated  industrial  habits  and  desirable  inter 
racial  relations. 

Another  agency  employed  in  the  development  of  the  soil  is 
Hampton's  cooperative  demonstration  farm  work  carried  on 
with  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  under  the 
supervision  of  T.  B.  Pierce,  a  Hampton  graduate.  In  Glou 
cester,  however,  as  is  the  case  in  all  but  the  tobacco  counties, 
other  means  than  farming  exist  to  furnish  a  livelihood  for  the 
negroes,  and  there  are  few  negro  families  some  member  of  which 
does  not  spend  part  of  his  time  fishing  or  oystering.  The  oyster- 
ing  season  lasts  from  September  1st  to  May  1st  and  good  work 
men  often  earn  as  much  as  $2  per  day.  According  to  a  careful 
study  of  the  negroes  of  Litwalton,13  made  some  years  ago,  it 


11.  T.    C.    Walker,    "Negro    Property    Holding    in    Tidewater,    Va." 
Annals   American  Academy  of  Pol.   and   Sc.   Science,   Sept.,   1913. 

12.  See   the    Report   of   the   Virginia  Tax   Commission,    1914. 

13.  W.   T.   Thorn,    "The   Negroes   of   Litwalton,   Va.,"    Bulletin    De 
partment  of  Labor,  37. 


44  PHELPS-STOKES  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

was  found  that  the  oystermen,  i.  e.  those  who  dig  the  oysters 
from  the  rocks,  make  about  $8  per  month,  while  families  occu 
pied  in  shucking  oysters  can  earn  up  to  $400  per  year,  three- 
fourths  of  them  getting  less  than  $250. 

This  industry  has  had  a  two-fold  effect  on  the  negroes  of 
Gloucester  and  Lancaster  Counties.  In  the  first  place  it  brings 
in  a  good  deal  of  money,  which  seems  to  be  invested  in  land, 
"and  it  is  noticeable  in  that  part  of  the  county  where  the  men 
are  oystermen  are  the  largest  farms  and  the  best  homes  owned 
by  negroes."  14  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  takes  the  men  away 
from  the  crops  too  early  in  the  fall  and  they  return  too  late 
in  the  spring  to  get  the  best  results  from  their  farm  work.  An 
other  result  has  been  that  it  caused  scarcity  of  farm  labor,  and 
while  negro  labor  still  remains  predominant  in  this  section,  there 
has  been  some  white  labor  brought  in.  Although  the  average 
holding  is  something  over  ten  acres,  almost  half  are  under  this 
size  and  are  commonly  regarded  as  too  small  to  furnish  a  living 
even  under  good  cultivation,  and  the  owners  must  either  rent, 
oyster,  or  labor  out  on  white  farms.  According  to  the  observa 
tions  of  Williams  15  both  renting  and  the  oystering  industry  are 
on  the  wane  in  Gloucester  County,  and  in  the  future  the  bulk 
of  the  negro  population  will  be  engaged  in  peasant  farming  and 
laboring  on  the  white  farms.  This  pronounced  material  im 
provement  among  the  negroes  in  Gloucester  seems  to  be  re 
flected  in  the  schools  and  other  social  agencies. 

According  to  the  County  Superintendent's  books  there  was 
in  Gloucester,  in  1914,  a  school  population  of  3,946  1G  of  whom 
1,806  were  white  and  2,140  negro.  The  total  number  of  whites 
enrolled  last  session  was  1,172  or  64%  and  the  total  number 
of  blacks  enrolled  was  1,386,  or  65%.  For  the  1,172  white  chil 
dren  forty-seven  schools  were  open  and  for  the  1,386  negro 
children  there  were  thirty-two  school  houses.  The  average 
monthly  salary  for  white  male  teachers  is  $60;  for  white  female, 


14.  W.  T.  B.  Williams,  "Local  Conditions  among  Negroes,"  bulle 
tin  published  by  the  Hampton  Institute  Press. 

15.  Ibid,   4. 

16.  For  these  and  the  succeeding  figures  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.   R. 
A.  Folkes,  Sup't    of  Schools  of  Gloucester  Co. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  45 

$35;  for  negro  male,  $30;  and  for  negro  female,  $27.50,  which 
is  higher  than  that  usually  paid  the  negro  teachers.  The  length 
of  the  session  for  both  white  and  negro  schools  is  about  seven 
months,  but  many  of  the  negroes  are  forced  to  leave  before  the 
end  of  the  session  on  account  of  farm  work.  All  of  the  schools 
in  the  county,  both  white  and  black,  are  aided  by  private  sub 
scription  to  continue  for  a  longer  session.  All  of  the  negro 
schools  are  held  in  fairly  well  equipped  frame  buildings  and  there 
are  many  Hampton  graduates  and  ex-students  among  the 
teachers. 

"The  negro's  opportunity  to  earn  money  and  his  superior 
average  intelligence  have  led  to  the  building  of  unusually  good 
houses  in  Gloucester.  In  one  of  the  better  districts  I  found, 
in  a  school  of  thirty  pupils,  ten  who  lived  in  houses  of  six 
rooms  each  and  only  one  in  a  house  of  one  room.  The  log 
cabin  is  rare  in  Gloucester.  These  good  houses  have  had  ap 
parently  a  marked  influence  upon  the  morals  of  the  colored 
people.  For  instance,  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  three-fourths 
of  the  people  lived  in  cabins,  bastardy  was  common.17  A  half- 
dozen  cases  among  the  colored  people,  and  two,  by  the  way, 
among  the  whites,  in  1903  was  regarded  as  an  alarmingly  high 
rate.  In  1904  there  was  but  one  case  among  the  negroes  within 
a  radius  of  ten  miles  from  the  court  house.  There  is  also  but 
very  little  miscegenation.  In  a  dozen  school  houses  I  saw  only 
one  child  whose  father  was  undoubtedly  white.  The  criminal 
record  of  the  county  also  reflects  credit  upon  the  homes.  For 
instance,  there  were  thirty  arrests  for  misdemeanors  in  1903. 
Of  these  sixteen  were  white  and  fourteen  colored.  In  1904 
there  were  fifteen — fourteen  white  and  one  colored.  Of  the 
felony  cases  for  1904  there  were  seven  for  the  county — two 
white  and  five  colored.  This  is  said  to  be  an  unusually  large 
record."  1S  The  housing  conditions  are,  indeed,  according  to 
Kelsey,19  better  in  this  county  than  in  any  rural  district  of  the 
South. 


17.  The  effect   of  the   houses   is,   of   course,   indirect   since   the   real 
cause  is  in  better  economic  and  educational  conditions. 

18.  W.    T.    B.    Williams,    "Local    Condition    among    Negroes,"    5-6. 
Pamphlet   of   Hampton    Institute    Press. 

19.  Carl  Kelsey,  The  Negro  Farmer,  34. 


46  PHELPS-STOKES  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

On  the  regular  negro  farms  in  this  county  there  are  also  many 
evidences  of  progress.  Here  no  women  are  found  working  in 
the  fields  but  their  time  is  spent  around  the  houses  and  gardens. 
The  crop  lien  system  is  unknown  and  each  farmer  raises  his 
own  vegetables,  smokes  his  own  meat,  raises  the  grain  for  his 
own  meal  and  flour,  and  buys  for  cash  or  short  credit  at  the  local 
store.  That  many  negroes  are  gradually  acquiring  small  places 
is  borne  out  by  the  Census  figures  which  show  that  in  this 
county  96C/C  of  the  negro  farmers  are  owners  while  the  same 
percentage  for  the  state  as  a  whole  is  66.  Kelsey  cites 20  the 
case  of  one  negro  farmer  who,  by  thrift  and  industry,  now  owns 
part  of  the  place  on  which  he  was  a  slave  and  his  slave  time 
cabin  is  now  used  as  a  shed.  "He  began  by  buying  land  in 
1873  paying  from  $10  to  $11.50  per  acre,  and  by  hard  work  and 
economy,  now  owns  sixty  acres  which  are  worth  more  than 
their  first  cost.  With  the  help  of  his  boys,  whom  he  has  man 
aged  to  keep  at  home,  he  derives  a  comfortable  income  from  his 
land.  His  daughter,  now  his  housekeeper,  teaches  school  during 
the  winter.  What  he  has  done  others  can  do,  he  says."  An 
other  who  has  succeeded  made  his  first  payments  from  the  sale 
of  wood  cut  in  clearing.  In  1903  his  acres  were  planted  as  fol 
lows :  orchard,  2;  woodland,  8;  pasture,  10;  corn,  8;  rye,  1; 
and  garden.  His  children  go  to  Hampton  and  he  says  that 
"one  boy  is  already  telling  him  how  to  get  more  produce  from 
his  land." 

In  brief  it  may  be  said  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  agriculture  is 
somewhat  neglected  for  the  opportunities  to  earn  money  by 
quicker  means,  but  that  numerous  single  examples  illustrate 
the  possibilities.  There  is  room  for  improvement  in  the  meth 
ods  of  tilling  the  soil,  in  the  use  of  fertilizers,  and  in  the  rota 
tion  of  crops,  but  this  is  true  universally.  The  general  social 
and  moral  improvement  has  been  noted  and,  as  Kelsey  says, 
"It  is  a  pleasure  to  find  that  one  of  the  stronger  factors  in  this 
improvement  is  due  to  the  presence  in  the  country  of  a  number 
of  .graduates  of  Hampton." 

Hanover,    a    county    on    the    border   between    the    Tidewater 


20.  Ibid,  34. 


RURAL  LAND   OWNERSHIP  47 

Section  and  Middle  Virginia,  is  typical  of  those  less  favored 
counties.  Its  total  population  is  17,200  of  which  7,040  is  ne 
gro.  Collectively  the  negroes  make  a  very  good  showing  along 
material  lines :  in  Henry  District  there  are  409  negro  owners, 
242  of  whom  own  less  than  10  acres  each,  109  from  10  to  25, 
58  over  25,  and  a  few  over  a  hundred.  Out  of  a  total  of  289,332 
acres  in  the  county  exclusive  of  the  town  of  Ashland  negroes 
owned  in  1914,  according  to  the  Auditor's  Report,  some  30,076 
acres  as  against  261,538  owned  by  the  whites.  Of  the  total 
farm  property  in  the  county  assessed  at  $2,981,201  negroes  own 
$317,714.  Allowing  for  the  under  assessment  this  represents  a 
true  value  of  a  little  over  $600,000.21  But  the  individual  hold 
ings  are  in  most  cases  too  small  to  enable  them  to  earn  a  living 
from  this  alone  and  they  must  rent  additional  land  or  work  out. 
So  far,  in  this  county,  most  of  their  efforts  at  acquiring  prop 
erty  have  gone  into  land  getting  and  little  attention  seems  to 
have  been  given  to  the  matter  of  housing.  While  improvements 
in  Gloucester  are  assessed  at  about  the  same  as  the  land,  they 
are  in  Hanover  assessed  at  only  about  half  as  much. 

Social  conditions  are  not  nearly  so  favorable  here.  Of  the 
5,091  negroes  over  ten  years  of  age  in  1910,  1,687  or  33%  were 
illiterate,  while  45%  of  those  of  voting  age  could  neither  read 
nor  write.  According  to  the  Superintendent's  Report  22  the  en 
rollment  in  the  schools  is  small  for  both  races  and  only  43% 
for  the  negroes.  "One  of  the  teachers  I  visited  rarely  used  a 
correct  sentence.  Yet  he  has  been  given  a  license  annually  for 
sixteen  years."  During  the  fall  the  boys  are  kept  home  to  work 
on  the  tobacco  farms  and  the  ignorance  and  indifference  on  the 
part  of  the  parents  accounts  for  the  irregular  attendance  of  the 
younger  children. 

The  churches  are  numerous  and  have  a  large  membership  but 
they  do  not  seem  to  contribute  much  to  the  general  uplift  of  the 
people.  One  reason  that  has  been  assigned  for  this  is  the  preva 
lence  of  absentee  preachers,  who  do  not  come  into  vital  con- 


21.  See   Report  of  the   Virginia   Tax   Commission,   1914. 

22.  Report  for  1902  quoted  by  "Williams,  Local  Conditions  among 
Negroes,"  6. 


48  PHELPS-STOKES  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

tact  with  the  people  but  leave  the  real  work  to  the  less  able 
members  of  the  profession.  On  the  whole  the  county  lacks  the 
best  efforts  of  both  the  church  and  school,  and  the  result  is  a 
vast  amount  of  ignorance  which,  in  turn,  reacts  upon  the  morals 
of  the  people.  Williams  gives  as  the  cause  of  much  of  the  crime 
the  sale  of  liquor  in  the  county :  "The  common  opinion  of  the 
white  and  colored  people  is  that  the  crime  is  such  as  comes 
from  ignorance,  poor  morals,  and  the  use  of  liquors,  rather 
than  crime  of  a  worse  nature.  Carrying  concealed  weapons, 
petty  thieving,  and  impudence  to  white  people  are  the  occasions 
for  most  of  the  arrests  according  to  the  colored  people  and  the 
county  officials.  *  *  *  The  nearness  of  Richmond  and  Pe 
tersburg  has  perhaps  something  to  do  with  Hanover's  criminal 
record." 

The  relations  between  the  races  in  Hanover  are,  as  is  usually 
the  case  in  Virginia,  amicable  but  they  are  hardly  as  good  as  in 
Gloucester  and  in  the  counties  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 
The  whites  depend  on  the  negroes  for  farm  labor  and  there  are 
but  few  white  men  employed  as  laborers  at  present,  though  they 
seem  to  be  on  the  increase  because  of  negro  emigration  and  the 
presence  of  two  railroads  in  the  county  which  employs  them  as 
section  hands  at  better  wages  than  the  farmers  are  able  to  offer. 
A  number  of  the  negroes  employ  all  of  their  time  as  agricultural 
undertakers  on  their  own  small  farms  and,  as  this  number  in 
creases,  the  available  supply  of  farm  laborers  will  naturally  de 
crease. 

When  conditions  in  Hanover  and  Gloucester  are  contrasted  the 
effect  of  the  kind  of  industrial  training  given  at  Hampton  is 
very  apparent.  "Hanover's  greatest  needs,  it  would  seem,  are 
more  effective  schools  and  churches,  and  especially  better  homes. 
There  are  too  few  good  homes  to  exert  a  helpful  influence  upon 
the  mass  of  the  others.  There  is  a  marked  absence  among  the 
residents  of  the  county  of  graduates  of  the  better  schools  and 
colleges  and  especially  from  those  that  lay  stress  in  their  train 
ing  upon  home  making.  A  few  young  women,  well  trained  in 
domestic  science  and  having  the  missionary  spirit,  could  do  a 
great  deal  of  good  here  either  as  teachers  or  house-keepers." 

The  central  portion  of  Virginia  which   forms  a  triangle  be- 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  49 

tween  the  North  Carolina  line,  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  the  fall  line 
of  the  Atlantic  rivers  may,  for  the  present  purposes,  be  consid 
ered  under  two  heads :  ( 1 )  those  counties  such  as  Prince  Ed 
ward  where  the  negroes  exist  in  large  numbers  and  where  the 
great  staple  is  raised,  and  (2)  those  such  as  Albemarle  where 
the  negroes  comprise  about  one-third  of  the  rural  population 
and  either  work  as  laborers  or  farm  their  own  small  food  crops. 
This  second  type  of  rural  economy  need  not  receive  our  atten 
tion  here  since  it  will  be  considered  at  length  later,  but  before 
turning  to  Prince  Edward  which  may  be  taken  as  representative 
of  the  first  type  let  us  examine  the  statistics  for  the  section  as  a 
whole  and  see  wherein  it  differs  as  a  whole  from  the  Tidewater 
and  Valley  Sections. 

For  the  thirty-five  counties  which  compose  this  central  part 
of  Virginia  the  1910  Census  shows  a  total  negro  population 
(exclusive  of  cities)  of  254,972  and  a  total  white  population  of 
364,698;  but  in  the  tobacco  counties  on  the  South  Side  there 
are  often  more  negroes  than  whites,  and  in  the  counties  at  the 
foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge  the  whites  form  from  sixty  to  eighty 
per  cent,  of  the  population.  The  percentage  of  negro  owned 
farms  to  total  negro  farms  is  smaller  in  this  section  than  in  any 
other  portion  of  the  state,  17,859  farms  out  of  a  total  of  27,444, 
or  65%,  being  operated  by  the  owners.  But  if  owners  are  fewer 
in  this  section,  the  negro  farmers  are  more  numerous  since 
there  is  one  negro  farmer  to  every  nine  of  the  total  negro  rural 
population.  A  farm,  however,  especially  in  the  cereal  raising 
counties,  often  means  merely  a  rural  home  where  the  owner 
derives  his  principal  income  from  some  other  source.  'The 
total  negro  population  decreased  in  this  section  7.5%  in  the  last 
census  period  whereas  there  was  an  increase  for  the  whole  state 
of  1.6%  as  against  16.5%  for  the  whites. 

Taken  collectively  the  negroes  own  considerable  property  in 
this  section.  In  1914  the  Auditor's  Report  showed  1,024,264 
acres  owned  by  negroes  or  11.2%  as  much  as  that  owned  by 
the  whites.23  This  land  with  its  improvements  was  assessed  at 


23.  For  the  derivation  of  these  and  the  succeeding  figures  see  tables 
in  the  Appendix. 


50  P HELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

$7,634,131  which  represents  an  actual  value  of  nearly  $24,000,000. 
The  estimated  value  of  the  same  class  of  white  property  is  a 
little  over  ten  times  as  much  or  $245,022,325.  The  estimated 
value  of  negro  land  and  improvements  per  acre  is  $23  and  for 
the  whites  almost  $27. 

The  condition  of  the  negroes  in  the  South  Side  is  probably 
poorer  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  state.  Traveling  through 
the  counties  of  Prince  Edward,  Mecklenburg,  Pittslyvania,  etc. 
the  homes  of  the  negroes  can  be  seen  at  every  clearing  and 
they  range  in  character  from  the  filthy  log  hut  to  very  plain 
but  substantial  frame  buildings.  Although  here  agriculture  is 
much  more  diversified  than  in  the  cotton  states,  still  tobacco  is 
the  one  big  staple  crop,  and  both  the  negro  owners  and  renters 
still  find  it  necessary  to  obtain  advances  from  the  country  stores 
for  food  and  fertilizer.  Advances  begin  early  in  the  spring  and 
continue  until  near  the  close  of  the  year  when  the  tobacco  is 
shipped  to  Farmville,  Petersburg,  Danville,  and  the  other  mar 
kets.  The  merchant  usually  receives  an  interest  charge  of  6C/0 
and  a  commission  for  selling  the  tobacco  in  addition  to  high  in 
itial  prices. 

The  average  value  of  an  acre  of  tobacco  is  almost  impossible 
to  estimate  because  of  the  varying  market  prices,  qualities,  and 
quantities.  Speaking  of  Prince  Edward  County,  Kelsey  says : 
"It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  the  negroes  do  not  average  over 
$20  per  acre,  ranging  from  $15  to  $25,  and  have,  perhaps,  three 
or  four  acres  in  tobacco."  24  Since  negroes  as  a  rule  live  up 
to  their  income  this  would  indicate  advances  ranging  from  $60 
to  $100.  In  Prince  Edward  County,  and  the  others  of  which 
it  is  typical,  wheat  and  corn  are  rotated  with  tobacco  and  thus 
about  half  of  the  land  is  in  tobacco  at  a  time.  Its  productive 
ness,  however,  is  lower  than  in  such  counties  as  Albemarle  and 
corn  rarely  runs  over  three  barrels  to  the  acre.  Nevertheless 
this  enables  the  negroes  to  supplement  their  incomes  by  fur 
nishing  the  corn  for  their  own  meal. 

Renters  either  furnish  three-fourths  of  the  fertilizer  and  their 
own  mules  and  implements  and  receive  three-fourths  of  the 


24.  Carl   Kelsey,   "The   Negro   Farmer,"   36. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  51 

crop,  or  one-half  of  the  crop  when  the  land-owner  furnishes  the 
mules  and  implements  and  one-half  of  the  fertilizer.  Tobacco 
is  by  nature  a  very  exhausting  crop  and  demands  some  four 
hundred  pounds  of  fertilizer  to  the  acre  which,  at  one  cent  per 
pound,  represents  about  four  dollars  to  the  acre.  The  average 
cash  rental  is  about  $3  to  $3.50  per  acre,  which  is,  considering 
the  cost  of  fertilizer,  a  little  less  than  rent  paid  in  kind.  The 
average  negro  family  in  Prince  Edward  County,  then,  just  about 
meets  his  advances  with  his  tobacco,  his  wheat  about  supplies 
him  with  flour,  his  corn  and  fodder  feed  his  stock,  and  an  oc 
casional  odd  job  by  himself  or  member  of  his  family  furnishes 
money  for  luxuries. 

Kelsey  cites  the  budget  of  a  family  which  is  more  or  less  typ 
ical  of  the  tenants  on  the  South  Side :  "B — has  a  family  of 
children  and  lives  in  a  large  cabin,  one  room  with  a  loft.  He 
owns  a  pair  of  oxen  and  manages  to  raise  enough  to  feed  them. 
He  also  raises  about  enough  meat  for  his  family.  During  the 
season  of  1902  he  raised  $175  worth  of  tobacco;  corn  valued 
at  $37.50  and  sixteen  bushels  of  wheat,  a  total  of  $221.  De 
ducting  one-fourth  for  rent  and  estimating  his  expenses  for  fer 
tilizer  at  $25,  he  had  about  $140  out  of  which  to  pay  all  other 
expenses." 25  Odd  jobs,  gardens,  poultry,  etc.,  however,  sup 
plement  the  income  of  the  more  industrious,  and  renting  does,  to 
a  few  of  the  tenants,  offer  a  good  living  and  the  means  to  own 
ership. 

But  on  the  whole  the  acquisition  of  property  by  the 
negroes  has  been  slower  in  this  section  than  any  where  else  in 
the  state.  Bruce  says  that  the  "negroes  of  the  tobacco  region 
of  Virginia  have,  since  emancipation,  been  afforded  the  most 
favorable  opportunities  of  improving  their  condition  by  pur 
chasing  land.  Its  cheapness  has  put  it  in  the  power  of  every 
laborer  to  secure  a  small  homestead.  *  *  *."26  That  the 
masses,  however,  have  not  had  the  qualities  necessary  to  pro 
vide  the  purchase  money  seems  evident  by  the  fact  that  their 
acquisition  of  property  has  been  slower  here  than  elsewhere.  It 

25.  Ibid. 

26.  P.   A.    Bruce,   "The   Plantation   Negro  as   a    Free    Man,"   222. 


52  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

is  probably  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  because  of  the 
reliance  on  the  one  crop  system,  agriculture,  and  hence  the  wealth 
of  the  section,  has  not  been  developed  to  its  greatest  possibilities. 
But  in  recent  years  the  negroes  have  been  making  greater  prog 
ress  and  in  Prince  Edward  County  the  negro  owners  in  1910 
constituted  72%  of  all  negro  farmers.  Many  of  these  own  a 
dozen  or  so  acres  and  rent  their  actual  farms  but  in  Prince  Ed 
ward,  which  is,  however,  better  off  in  this  respect  than  other 
tobacco  counties,  many  of  the  negroes  own  outright.  In  Buffalo 
District,  for  example,  which  is  the  largest  in  the  county,  there 
are  258  negro  holdings ;  54  of  these  are  less  than  ten  acres ;  43 
are  from  thirty  to  forty-nine ;  and  70  are  over  50  acres.  Of  the 
total  of  220,082  acres  in  the  county,  negroes  owned  in  1914 
42,103  acres.  That  this  land  was  not  of  a  poorer  quality  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  about  five  times  as  much  white  land  was 
assessed  at  about  five  times  as  much. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  while  the  negroes  of  the  South 
Side  and  of  Prince  Edward  County  still  lag  behind,  they  have 
recently  begun  to  acquire  land  and  in  some  districts  have  made 
material  progress.  In  the  matter  of  housing  and  education,  how 
ever,  the  backwardness  is  more  evident.  The  log  cabin  is  still 
the  rule  in  this  section  while  it  is  rare  in  Gloucester,  and  Wil 
liams  says  that  in  all  of  the  schools  that  he  visited  he  only  found 
two  pupils  into  whose  homes  magazines  or  newspapers  went  reg 
ularly.  The  Superintendent  of  Schools  expresses  the  hope  that 
school  conditions  in  Prince  Edward  ''compare  very  unfavorably 
with  conditions  in  other  Virginia  counties,  for  it  would  be  sad 
to  think  others  were  in  a  like  fix." 

There  were,  in  1914,  3,104  negro  children  of  school  age  and 
1,624  whites.27  The  percentage  of  enrollment  for  whites  is  87% 
and  for  negroes  only  64%  ;  again,  the  percentage  of  attendance 
is  54%  for  the  whites  and  only  34%.  for  the  negroes.  The  av 
erage  salary  for  negro  teachers  is  only  $25  and  five  years  ago 
it  was  sometimes  as  low  as  $12.  Twenty-five  of  the  negro 

27.  For  this  information  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  P.  T.  Atkinson, 
Sup't  of  Schools  for  Prince  Edward  County. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  53 

schools  are  aided  by  private  subscription  to  continue  for  a  longer 
session,  but  even  with  this  help  the  average  session  is  now  only 
a  little  over  five  months.  Of  the  forty-one  negro  schools  in  the 
county,  five  are  held  in  log  cabins.  School  conditions  are,  in 
deed,  worse  in  these  counties  than  anywhere  else  in  the  state, 
but  with  the  increased  number  of  Hampton  and  Petersburg  grad 
uates  as  teachers  they  may  normally  be  expected  to  improve. 

Realizing  the  need  of  good  schools  to  keep  the  negroes  in 
the  country  where  they  succeed  best  and  to  make  them  efficient 
rural  workers,  there  has  been  a  general  movement  recently 
throughout  the  state  to  improve  the  rural  school  facilities.  The 
General  Education  Board  has  provided  for  a  State  Supervisor 
of  Negro  Rural  Schools  for  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Arkansas,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  and  the  Jeannes  and  Slater 
Funds,  by  various  arrangements  with  local  authorities,  aid  in 
dustrial  education  in  the  rural  districts.  The  training  in  indus 
trial  and  domestic  sciences  in  the  rural  schools  is  gradually 
spreading  throughout  the  state  and  that  it  is  practical  in  its 
nature  is  shown  by  the  following  report  of  Jackson  Davis,  Su 
pervisor  for  Virginia : 

"During  the  year  1912-13,  twenty-three  supervising  industrial 
teachers  were  employed  for  the  negro  rural  schools  of  twenty- 
five  counties.  There  were  in  these  counties  591  negro  schools ; 
417  of  these  were  visited  regularly  by  the  industrial  teachers, 
who  introduced  and  taught  cooking,  sewing,  shuck  mat  making, 
and  various  forms  of  practical  industrial  work.  They  made  a 
total  of  2,853  visits  during  the  school  term,  189  of  the  schools 
having  a  short  term,  extended  the  term  by  private  subscription 
one  month,  so  that  an  average  term  of  six  months  was  main 
tained  in  these  twenty-five  counties.  Twenty  new  school  houses 
were  built,  costing  $23,808  and  fifteen  were  enlarged  at  a  cost 
of  $2,212.09. 

"Forty-six  buildings  were  painted  and  eighty-one  white 
washed;  370  schools  used  individual  drinking  cups  and  in  102 
sanitary  outhouses  were  built.  The  428  school  improvement 
leagues  raised  in  cash  for  new  buildings,  extended  terms,  equip 
ment  and  other  improvements,  $22,655.80.  I  think  it  is  safe  to 


54  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

say  that  labor  and  materials  of  various  sorts  were  contributed 
by  the  various  leagues  to  the  value  of  $10,000,  though  the  teach 
ers  had  no  uniform  standard  by  which  to  estimate  this. 

"Summer  Garden  and  Canning  work  for  the  girls  was  carried 
on  by  thirteen  of  these  teachers  in  fourteen  counties  during  the 
summer  months;  617  girls  were  reported  enrolled  in  the  clubs 
and  416  gardens  were  reported  good  and  122  poor.  The  girls 
put  up  10,504  jars  of  vegetables  and  fruits  and  their  mothers 
put  up  12,269,  making  a  total  of  22,773  jars.  Almost  none  of 
this  is  sold  but  is  used  in  the  homes  for  the  table  in  the  winter. 

"In  addition  to  this  work,  the  teachers  gave  the  girls  in  their 
meetings  in  the  different  homes  during  the  summer  months,  193 
cooking  lessons,  and  178  sewing  lessons;  136  of  these  homes 
were  whitewashed." 

In  view  of  the  varying  conditions  in  the  different  localities 
it  is  apparent  that  whatever  education  of  this  character  is  given 
should  be  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  particular  community. 
And  this  is,  indeed,  the  basis  for  the  so-called  Halifax  Plan28 
which  is  now  in  operation  under  the  direction  of  the  state  su 
pervisor  and  which  consists  in  placing  in  each  county  a  super 
visor  who  is  acquainted  with  the  social,  agricultural,  and  phys 
ical  conditions,  and  who  is,  therefore  capable  of  determining 
what  actually  is  utilitarian  education.  Such  a  plan  makes  it 
possible  to  give  the  kind  of  agricultural  and  industrial  training 
that  is  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  particular  locality  and  thus 
work  toward  making  the  negro  an  efficient  citizen  at  home.  To 
make  them  this  obviates  the  white  antagonism  to  spending  one- 
third  of  the  school  fund  on  the  education  of  the  negroes,  who 
only  pay  one-thirtieth  of  the  taxes,  by  giving  value  received. 
The  supervisor  in  Halifax  is  financed  jointly  by  Hampton,  the 
General  Education  Board,  the  County  Board,  and  by  private 
subscriptions  and  the  whole  work  is  under  the  direction  of  the 
State  Supervisor.  This  plan  has  been  put  into  operation  in 
several  of  the  counties  and  where  it  is  done  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  has  agreed  to  and  is  placing  negro 


£8.  See  "The  Halifax  Plan  for  the  Practical  Education  of  the   Ne 
gro,"   J.    W.    Church.      Hampton    Institute    Press    1910. 


R\jRAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  03 

farm  demonstrators.  All  of  these  movements  are  based  on  the 
assumption  that  to  improve  the  economic  condition  of  the  state, 
the  efficiency  of  the  producers,  no  matter  what  their  color,  must 
be  raised.  And  as  far  as  can  be  judged  by  results  in  those  coun 
ties  where  the  negroes  have  been  in  closer  contact  with  practical 
education,  it  may  be  taken  as  a  maxim  that  greater  efficiency 
is  best  obtained  by  industrial  education.  This  has  been  true 
throughout  the  ages;  the  European  barbarians  were  benefited 
by  contact  with  Rome  not  because  of  its  literature  or  militarism, 
but  because  of  its  experience  in  agriculture  and  the  agricultural 
arts  which,  when  adopted  by  the  people,  laid  the  foundation  for 
the  later  German  civilization. 

In  this  very  inadequate  discussion  we  have  reviewed  the  note 
worthy  rapidity  with  which  the  negro  is  acquiring  property  in 
Virginia,29  and  the  conditions  among  the  negro  rural  population 
in  the  several  most  typical  sections  of  the  state.  One  point 
stands  out  above  all  the  rest :  the  economic  environment  varies 
greatly  even  within  the  bounds  of  a  single  state  and  whatever 
course  the  negro  pursues  in  working  out  his  problem  must  be 
related  to  this.  More  or  less  overlooked  in  the  discussion,  but 
none  the  less  important,  is  the  necessity  for  sympathetic  white 
counsel  and  direction.  In  Virginia  this  element  of  help  seems 
to  be  forthcoming  and  the  negro  leaders  of  the  Tidewater  Sec 
tion  especially  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  members  of  their 
race  have  been  "greatly  encouraged  in  their  efforts  to  accu 
mulate  property  and  become  substantial  citizens  by  the  best  ele 
ment  of  the  native  white  people."  30  It  will  become  more  and 
more  apparent,  as  we  consider  actual  conditions,  that  the  own 
ership  of  land  by  the  negroes  does  foster  and  develop  those 
qualities  which  work  for  a  substantial  citizenship  and  a  greater 
social  production  of  wealth. 


29.  "It  is   safe   to   say  that  when   it   comes   to   the  matter   of  prop 
erty  holding,  the  negro  in  the  North  is  a  century  behind  his  brother 
in  the   South."     J.  T.   Hewin,  "Hampton   Negro   Conference   Report," 
1904,    35. 

30.  T.  C.  Walker,  "Negro  Property  Holding  in  Tidewater  Virginia." 
Annals  Am.  Acad.   Pol.   &  Soc.   Sc.,   Sept.,   191?,. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
NEGRO  LAND  OWNERSHIP  IN  ALBEMARLE  COUNTY. 

In  the  previous  discussion  the  divergence  in  rural  conditions 
in  the  different  localities  has  been  noted.  And  it  has  been  noted 
further  that  Central  Virginia,  as  a  section,  may  be  divided  into 
two  smaller  groups :  the  one  typified  by  such  counties  as  Prince 
Edward  where  one  staple  crop  continues  to  be  raised  largely 
by  negroes,  and  the  other  typified  in  those  counties  where  the 
cereals  and  fruits  are  raised  on  land  usually  owned  by  the  oper 
ator  and  where  the  crops  are  greatly  diversified. 

Albemarle  belongs  to  the  latter  -class,  and  yet,  if  any  one  county 
can  be  taken  as  representative  of  the  whole  group,  a  better  one 
could  not  be  chosen.  Indeed,  the  county  is  half  in  Middle  Vir 
ginia  and  half  in  the  Piedmont  Section  and  a  line  drawn  from 
North  to  South  running  through  Charlottesville,  the  county  seat, 
may  be  said  to  be  the  division.  The  elevation  ranges  from  400 
feet  in  the  eastern  and  southern  part  of  the  county  to  3,000  feet 
at  Jarman's  Gap  at  the  summit  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

In  a  number  of  ways  Albemarle  County  is  typical  of  the  state 
as  a  whole.  Its  population  in  1910,  exclusive  of  the  city  of 
Charlottesville,  was  29,871,  of  which  20,198  were  white  and 
9,673  colored,  a  ratio  about  the  same  as  that  for  the  state.  The 
land  area  of  the  county  is  about  750  square  miles  and  its  popula 
tion  density  is  39.8  per  square  mile  which  is  nearly  the  same  as 
that  for  the  state  as  a  whole.  In  its  history,  also,  Albemarle  is 
representative  of  both  the  old  and  new  counties  of  the  Old  Do 
minion. 

Albemarle  County  was  populated  by  two  streams  of  people; 
one  coming  from  the  older  counties  of  the  Tidewater  Section  and 
bringing  with  them  their  slaves  and  their  plantation  system,  and 
the  other  coming  east  from  the  Valley  where  they  had  been  ac 
customed  to  small  farms.  The  first  patents  were  taken  out  in 
1727  and  were  for  holdings  of  from  three  to  thirteen  thousand 

56 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  D/ 

acres,1  which  early  assured  the  establishment  of  the  plantation 
system  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  county.  The  act  creating  the 
county  was  passed  by  the  legislature  in  1744,  and  the  organiza 
tion  took  place  near  the  present  town  of  Scottsville  in  1745. 2  In 
1869  the  present  county  of  Albemarle  was  divided  into  the  five 
townships,  subsequently  termed  magisterial  districts,  of  Rivanna, 
White  Hall,  Samuel  Miller,  Scottsville,  and  Charlottesville.  In 
1875  Ivy  District  was  added  and  the  county  retains  these  same 
districts  today. 

In  the  published  letters  of  Major  Thomas  Anbury,  a  British 
Officer  and  prisoner  in  Albermarle  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 
there  are  some  interesting  observations  on  early  life  in  Albemarle 
which  may  help  us  to  understand  better  the  present  conditions. 
"The  plantations  are  scattered  here  and  there,"  he  says,  "over 
the  land  which  is  thickly  covered  with  timber.  On  these  there 
is  a  dwelling  house,  with  kitchen,  smokehouse,  and  other  out 
houses  detached,  and  from  the  various  buildings  each  plantation 
has  the  appearance  of  a  small  village.  At  some  distance  from 
the  houses  are  peach  and  apple  orchards,  and  scattered  over  the 
plantations  are  the  negro's  huts,  and  tobacco  barns,  which  are 
large  and  built  of  wood  for  the  cure  of  that  article.  *  *  * 
Most  of  the  planters  consign  the  care  of  their  plantations  and 
negroes  to  an  overseer;  even  the  man  whose  house  we  rent 
has  an  overseer,  though  he  could  with  ease  superintend  it  him 
self.  *  *  *  There  were,  and  still  are,  three  degrees  of  rank 
among  the  inhabitants,  exclusive  of  the  negroes;  but  I  am  afraid 
the  advantage  of  this  distinction  will  never  exist  again  in  this 
country  in  the  same  manner  it  did  before  the  commencement 
of  hostilities."  3  At  the  risk  of  being  irrelevant  these  passages 
have  been  quoted  to  show  that  in  its  early  history  the  eastern 
part  of  Albemarle  resembled  the  older  counties  of  Virginia  while 
the  western  part  resembled,  in  its  agricultural  economy,  the  Val 
ley  of  Virginia.  The  effects  of  the  early  settlement  can  be  traced 
in  the  different  parts  of  the  county  today. 


1.  Edgar  Woods,   "History  of  Albemarle,"   2. 

2.  Ibid,  8. 

3.  Quoted   by   Woods,    Ibid,    39-42. 


58  PHELPS-STOKKS   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

In  the  western  part  of  the  county,  where  the  negroes  are  less 
numerous  and  the  white  farms  generally  smaller,  lies  the  great 
fruit  belt  which  is  the  original  home  of  the  celebrated  Albemarle 
pippin.  On  the  lower  lands  below  eight  or  nine  hundred  feet 
elevation  in  the  central  and  eastern  part  of  the  county  the  sandy 
Cecil  clay  soil  is  fertile  and  capable  of  producing  fine  fruit  and 
cereal  crops.  Lands  in  these  various  parts  of  the  county  have 
a  wide  range  in  value ;  the  old  field  lands  often  selling  for  as  low 
as  $4  per  acre  while  that  land  which  is  used  for  orchards  and 
country  homes  brings  often  as  much  as  $500.  Average  farming 
land,  including  buildings  thereon,  is  assessed  at  about  $12  per 
acre  which,  according  to  the  findings  of  the  Virginia  Tax  Com 
mission,  represents  an  actual  value  of  about  $40.  The  value  of 
land  and  improvements  per  acre  owned  by  the  negroes  runs  con 
siderably  less  than  that  owned  by  the  white.  This  condition, 
however,  is  not  due  solely  to  the  fact  that  the  negro  land  is  in 
ferior  because  the  orchardists  are  all  white  and  there  are  many 
valuable  country  estates  in  the  county. 

There  are,  in  general,  two  types  of  farms  in  the  county :  those 
in  the  western  part  of  the  county  which  raise  fruit  almost  ex 
clusively,  and  those  devoted  to  general  agriculture  east  of  the 
line  running  through  Charlottesville.  Crozet,  a  village  just  at 
the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  is  the  largest  fruit  shipping  point  in 
the  state  and  in  good  years  some  35,000  to  40,000  barrels  of 
apples  are  shipped  from  here.  This  district  merges  into  Green 
wood,  also  a  fruit  center  and  shipping  point  five  miles  off,  Bates- 
ville,  seven  miles  off  at  the  foot  of  the  Ragged  mountains,  and 
White  Hall,  also  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  In  general  ag 
riculture  the  county  is  well  adapted  to  the  production  of  all  of 
the  cereals  with  the  possible  exception  of  barley.  Corn,  of 
course,  is  the  principal  cereal  and  average  farming  land  properly 
managed  may  be  expected  to  yield  from  6  to  10  barrels  to  the 
acre.  Wheat,  under  similar  conditions,  may  be  expected  to  pro 
duce  from  3  to  6  barrels  and  winter  oats  produces  about  30 
bushels  to  the  acre.4  Tobacco  was,  before  the  war,  one  of  the 

4.  These   figures  were   obtained   from   farmers. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  59 

principal  crops  but  with  the  changed  conditions  its  production 
has  been  reduced  to  practically  nil. 

The  Census  gives  the  value  of  all  of  the  crops  for  Albemarle 
County  at  $1,486,629  divided  as  follows  :  cereals  $697,816 ;  other 
grains  $1,416;  hay  and  forage  $258,808;  vegetables  $183,109; 
fruits  $163,316;  and  all  other  crops  $182,169.  These  estimates 
are  of  course  inaccurate,  but  they  at  least  show  the  extent  of  di 
versification  in  the  county. 

In  brief,  then,  by  its  history,  location,  density  and  inter-racial 
ratio  of  population,  and  by  the  diversity  of  its  agriculture  Albe 
marle  is  typical  of  the  older  counties  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue 
Ridge,  and  what  is  said  of  the  negroes  in  its  rural  district  is  alike 
applicable  to  many  other  counties  of  the  state. 

The  statistics  for  the  white  and  negro  population  in  the  county 
reflect  the  agricultural  conditions  before  the  War  and  show  the 
present  conditions : 

TABLE  X:  POPULATION  BY  DECADES. 


Year 
1850 

White 
11  875 

Slave 
13  338 

Free  Negro 

587 

%  Negro 
53  97o 

1860        . 

12,103 

13  916 

606 

54  5% 

1870 

12550 

14  994 

54  4 

1880  

15  959 

16  659 

51 

1890 

18  252* 

14  126 

43  6 

1900  

18  135 

10  337 

36  3 

1910 

20  198 

9  673 

32  4 

Prior  to  the  War  there  were  two  agricultural  systems  in  the 
county :  the  one,  which  was  general  in  the  foothills,  was  a  small 
farm  system  where  the  farmers  with  a  few  slaves,  and  sometimes 
indeed  with  none  at  all,  raised  small  food  crops ;  the  other  was 
the  tobacco  plantation  with  large  slave  holdings.  The  two  sys 
tems  did,  indeed,  reflect  the  agricultural  economy  of  the  two 
types  of  people  who  settled  in  Albemarle ;  in  the  west  there  were 
those  who  had  come  from  the  Valley  where  the  small  farm  was 

*Charlottesville  not  included  after  1890.  Population  of  Charlottes- 
ville  1910,  4,241  whites  and  2,524  negroes. 


60 


PHELPS-STOKKS    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 


general  and  in  the  east  there  were  the  planters  who  had  come 
from  eastern  Virginia.  That  the  plantation  greatly  predom 
inated,  however,  is  shown  by  the  high  percentage  of  negroes  up 
until  the  time  when  the  large  single  staple  crop  was  abandoned. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  compare  the  white  and  negro  popula 
tion  of  Albemarle  with  that  of  its  neighbors,  Augusta,  in  the 
Valley,  and  Louisa,  in  Middle  Virginia. 

TABLE  XI:    POPULATION  MOVEMENTS  IN  THREE  ADJA 
CENT   COUNTIES. 


Year 
1850 

Alb- 
white 

11,875 

smarle 
negro 
13,925 
14,522 
14,994 

14,126 
10,337 
9,673 

Augusta 
white     negro 
18,983        5,637 
21,547       6,202 
22,026       6,737 

28,596        8,407 
26,670*     5,700 
27,904        4,541 

Louisa 
white     negro 
6,423     10,268 
6,183     10,518 
6,269     10,063 

7,192        9,805 
7,896        8,621 
8,695        7,883 

I860     

12,103 

1870 

.    .  .      12,550 

1880 
1890 

18252 

1900 

18  135 

1910 

20  198 

The  slaves  were  greatly  in  the  minority  in  Augusta  because 
here  the  small  farm  system  was  in  operation,  while  in  Louisa,  a 
plantation  county,  the  reverse  condition  was  true.  Albemarle, 
as  would  be  expected  by  its  location  between  the  two  and  the 
conditions  of  its  settlement,  was  in  an  intermediate  position  and 
has  since  remained  so  as  far  as  the  negro  population  is  con 
cerned. 

Within  the  boundary  of  the  county  the  same  tendency  is  shown 
in  the  distribution  of  the  negro  population.  In  the  eastern  dis 
trict  where  the  slaves  were  numerous  the  negroes  are  numerous 
today,  and  in  the  mountain  districts  where  they  were  always  few 
they  are  few  now.  The  black  districts,  furthermore,  seem  to  be 
growing  blacker  while  the  white  districts  are  growing  whiter :  5 


*Includes  Staunton  to  1900. 

5.  This  tendency  seems  to  be  universally  true.  See  R.  P.  Brooks, 
"A  Local  Study  of  the  Race  Problem,"  Pol.  Sc.  Quar.  1911  and  Du- 
Bois,  "The  Souls  of  the  Black  Folk." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  61 

TABLE  XII:    POPULATION  BY  DISTRICTS.6 


Districts 
Rivanna     

negro 
Taxpayers 

572 

white  pop. 
3,505 

negro  pop. 

2,321 

%  negfo 
39.8% 

Charlottesville     
White    Hall    

181 
10 

4,271 
3,269 

1,966 
897 

31.5 
21.5 

Ivv 

39 

980 

535 

35  3 

Scottsville              .. 

541 

3  918 

2  481 

38  8 

Sarnuel    Miller    .      ... 

211 

4  255 

1  473 

25  7 

Totals 

1  554 

20  198 

9  673 

32  4 

In  three  of  the  magisterial  districts  the  negro  population  is 
greater  than  that  for  the  county  as  a  whole.  In  the  case  of 
Rivanna  and  Scottsville  this  condition  is  to  be  explained  by  the 
fact  that  here  there  are  the  greatest  number  of  negro  land-own 
ers,  and  in  the  Ivy  District  it  is  to  be  explained  by  the  greater 
demand  in  this  section  for  servants  and  farm  hands.  In  White 
Hall,  Samuel  Miller,  and  Ivy  the  white  holdings  are  smaller  and 
there  are  few  negro  holdings ;  a  condition  \vhich  would  naturally 
lead  us  to  expect  a  smaller  negro  population.  In  the  Charlottes 
ville  District  the  negroes  are  about  the  same  as  in  Charlottes 
ville. 

Of  the  480,000  acres  forming  the  approximate  area  of  Albe- 
marle  County,  386,491  are  in  farms  and  226,830  are  improved. 
The  average  acreage  per  farm  is  141  acres,  something  more  than 
for  the  state  as  a  whole,  and  the  average  improved  acreage  is 
82.8. 

The  last  census  shows  a  100%  increase  in  the  value  of  farm 
property  and  gives  the  value  in  1910  of  all  farm  property  at 
$14,945,561.  This  increase,  however,  which  the  census  shows  to 
be  more  or  less  universal,  is  to  be  partly  explained  by  the  fact 
that  the  last  census  was  taken  during  a  period  of  reaction  from 
the  1907  panic  when  land  values  were  on  a  "boom"  while  the 
previous  one  was  taken  during  a  period  of  depression.  The  real 
increase  was  hardly  half  of  this. 


6.  These   figures    for   population    were    compiled    especially   by    the 
Census  Bureau  and  are  not  in  any  printed  report. 


62  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

The  Census  does  not  report  property  ownership  for  the  county 
by  races,  but  from  the  books  of  the  County  Treasurer  the  assess 
ment  can  be  derived,  and  these,  corrected  according  to  the  ratio 
between  assessed  value  and  the  value  of  property  based  on  recent 
sales,  will  give  a  reasonably  accurate  idea  of  the  value  of  land 
and  buildings  owned  in  the  county  by  the  respective  races. 

TABLES  XIII:  FARM  VALUES  BY  RACES. 

White  Negro          %  Negro 

Number  of  acres 426,455  25,862  5.7% 

Assessed    value    of    land $2,700,080.00  $146,858.00  5.1 

Assessed   value    of    buildings...       2,447,252.00  153,235.00  5.8 

Total     5,147,332.00  300,093.00  5.5 

Ratio    of   Ass.    V.    to    Sales    V.             30%  30'% 

Est.    true    value $17,157,773.00  $1,000,310.00  5.5 

Value    land    per   acre 21.10  18.92  89.6 

V.  land  and  bldgs.  per  acre...                   42.33  38.67  91.3 

The  negro  ownership  is  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  Ri- 
vanna  and  Scottsville  Districts  where  they  own  about  80%  of 
their  acreage.  In  the  other  four  districts  together  they  own  but 
4,438  acres  while  in  the  Scottsville  District  alone  they  own  over 
10,000  acres  and  in  the  Rivanna  over  7,000.  The  white  improved 
land  is  worth  considerably  more  per  acre  than  is  indicated  by  the 
figures  because  the  negro  knd,  which  is  all  in  small  holdings, 
is  apt  to  be  improved  and  in  crops  while  much  of  the  larger  white 
holdings  is  in  pasture  or  woodland.  The  average  size  of  holdings 
for  the  negroes  run  considerably  higher  in  the  Scottsville  than 
in  the  Rivanna  District,  but  it  is  worth  only  $12  an  acre  as  against 
about  $22  in  the  Rivanna  District.  There  is  a  still  greater  dif 
ference  in  the  value  of  improvements. 

The  thirteenth  census  gives  the  total  number  of  farms  in  the 
county  at  2,741,  of  which  637  belong  to  negroes  and  2,104  to 
whites.  Thus  where  the  negroes  compose  32.4  per  cent,  of  the 
population,  they  are  30.2%  of  the  farmers.  There  are  few  ten 
ants  in  the  county  of  any  race  and  fewer  negro  tenants.  Indeed 
there  are  in  Albemarle  only  408  tenants  and  of  these  364  are 
white  men  operating  under  their  own  supervision  and  not  as  a 
part  of  a  plantation.  The  Tax  Receiver's  books  show  some  1,554 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  63 

negro  land  owners,  but  often  two  or  three  acres  are  held  by 
different  members  of  the  same  family  and  it  is  safe  to  estimate 
that  in  1914  the  separate  negro  places  were  not  over  900  and 
probably  not  this  many.  At  any  rate  it  shows  a  considerable 
increase  over  the  1910  census  figures  and  personal  observation 
bears  out  the  assumption  that  there  have  been  a  number  of  places 
acquired  in  the  past  few  years. 

Estimating  that  there  are  850  separate  negro  places  in  the 
county,  the  average  size  of  a  farm  owned  by  one  family  is  about 
30  acres  while  the  average  individual  holding  is  16.6  acres.  The 
average  size  of  a  negro  owned  farm  for  the  state  is  about  40 
acres  with  about  half  of  this  improved.  There  are  at  present 
in  the  county  30  negroes  who  own  over  100  acres,  ten  of  whom 
own  over  200  acres  and  three  of  whom  own  over  300  acres. 
There  are  63  who  own  between  50  and  100  acres.  But  the  vast 
majority  of  them  are  small  and,  as  will  appear  later,  serve  only 
as  homes  for  the  negroes  who  have  some  other  means  of  sup 
port.  In  the  Rivanna  District  alone,  where  there  are  some  572 
holdings,  379  of  them  are  under  ten  acres  and  many  of  these  con 
sist  of  only  one  or  two  acres.  When  compared  with  the  holdings 
of  the  whites  the  subdivisions  are,  indeed,  very  small,  but  it  is 
no  evidence  of  widespread  intensive  cultivation. 

But  while  the  holdings  are  small,  they  are  most  of  them  owned 
outright,  and  the  negroes  have  little  debt.  Of  the  negroes  inter 
viewed  practically  all,  or  96C/0  of  them,  had  finished  paying  for 
their  land  and  were  free  from  debt.  One  of  the  best  farmers 
questioned  had  begun  acquiring  land  immediately  after  the  war 
and  now  owns  two  good  farms  totalling  205  acres  free  from 
debt.  Others  had  owned  their  property  for  twenty  or  thirty 
years  and  the  average  period  of  negro  ownership  was  found  to 
be  about  twenty  years.  Allowing  for  the  recent  purchases  in  this 
average,  this  further  bears  out  our  conclusion  reached  earlier  in 
this  paper 7  that  negroes  did  not  begin  to  acquire  property  in 
large  numbers  much  before  1880. 

The  tendency  since  the  War  in  Albemarle,  as  elsewhere,  has 
been  for  the  size  of  farms  to  steadily  decrease.  After  the  War 

7.  See   above,   30   &   31. 


64  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

the  plantation  system  was  impossible  to  maintain  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  controlling  the  negroes,  and  after  a  few  years  of  un 
successful  attempts  was  given  up.  In  1850  the  average  size  of  a 
farm  in  Albemarle  County  was  probably  about  300  acres,8  or 
some  sixty  acres  larger  than  the  average  farm  for  the  state  as  a 
whole;  in  1880  this  average  had  shrunk  to  202  acres  and  in  1910 
to  141  acres.  Thus  the  breaking  up  of  the  plantations  tended  to 
ward  the  creation  of  small  farms  for  both  whites  and  blacks  and 
enabled  the  poor  whites  as  well  as  the  negroes  to  become  owners 
and  operate  their  own  farms.  That  tenantry,  especially  for  the 
negroes,  is  a  thing  of  the  past  and  that  the  farmers  are  becoming 
more  and  more  owners  is  shown  by  the  following : 

TABLE  XIV:   FARM  TENURE   1900-1910. 


1900 

Owners  and 

Farms     part 

owners 

Tenants 

Managers 

White      .    . 

1  969 

1  355 

493 

121 

Negro     

667 

563 

97 

7 

1910 

White      .    . 

2  104 

1  615 

364 

125 

Negro     

637 

581 

44 

12 

The  negro  owners  increased  28  and  the  tenants  decreased  53 
making  their  total  practically  negligible.  The  negro  rural  popu 
lation  of  the  county  may,  therefore,  be  considered  not  as  a  ten 
ant  class,  but  as  a  laboring  and  owning  class  exclusively.  So  far 
as  can  be  learned  from  observation  the  two  go  together  and  the 
owners  usually  come  into  this  class  from  laboring  rather  than 
from  cropping.  Only  a  small  percentage  of  the  owners  inter 
viewed  had  ever  been  croppers,  but  most  of  them  had  been,  or 
still  are,  farm  or  railway  laborers  or  semi-skilled  artisans. 

The  1900  Census  gives  the  number  of  white  and  negro  far 
mers  classified  by  principal  source  of  income  for  the  state  as  a 
whole,  but  not  for  the  counties.  At  the  time  of  this  classification 


8.  This  is  an  estimate  made  on  the  basis  of  area  in  farms  and  agri 
cultural   population. 


RURAIy  LAND  OWNERSHIP  65 

26.7%  of  the  farms  in  the  state  were  operated  by  negroes.  Of 
the  hay  and  grain  farms  21.8%  were  operated  by  negroes;  of 
vegetable  farms,  37.9%  ;  of  fruit  farms,  15.5%  ;  of  stock  farms, 
15.2%  ;  of  cotton,  57.1 ;  of  tobacco,  37.3%  ;  and  of  farms  raising 
miscellaneous  crops  33.6%  were  operated  by  negroes.  As  far 
as  observation  can  be  relied  upon,  the  conditions  in  Albemarle 
are  scarcely  what  is  indicated  by  these  figures ;  there  are  no  ne 
gro  orchardists  and  very  few  negro  stock  raisers.  There  are, 
of  course,  no  cotton  farms  in  the  county,  but  vegetable  and  mis 
cellaneous  crops  are  raised  by  the  negroes  more  than  other  speci 
fied  crops.  In  fact  the  negro  farms  of  the  county  might  almost 
all  be  put  in  the  miscellaneous  class  raising  a  little  corn  and 
wheat,  vegetables,  a  few  fruit  trees,  and  possibly  a  few  head  of 
stock. 

During  the  last  census  period  the  total  negro  population  in  the 
county  decreased  from  10,337  to  9,673  or  6.9%,  but  the  number 
of  negro  farmers  decreased  only  from  667  to  637  or  4.5%. 
Among  the  whites  just  the  reverse  tendering  was  true;  while 
there  was  an  increase  in  population  of  11.3%  there  was  an  in 
crease  of  only  6.8%  in  the  number  of  white  farmers.  If  the  ab 
solute  number  of  negro  farmers  were  low  these  figures  would 
not  be  significant,  but  since  the  ratio  of  negro  farmers  to  total 
negro  population  is  as  great  as  the  same  ratio  for  the  whites, 
they  show  that,  while  the  county  is  getting  whiter,  the  negroes 
are  staying  on  the  farms  relatively  better  than  the  whites.  The 
negro  farmers  increased  1.53  times  as  fast  as  did  the  negro  pop 
ulation,  while  the  white  farmers  only  .60  times  as  fast  as  their 
population.  The  decrease  in  ratio  of  total  negro  population  is, 
therefore,  due  to  the  moving  away  of  the  non-land-owning  class 
rather  than  the  farmers.  There  was  an  absolute  increase  in  ne 
gro  farm  owners  and  the  decrease  noted  above  is  accounted  for 
by  the  decrease  in  tenants. 

The  negroes  in  Charlottesville  have  always  been  relatively  a 
little  more  numerous  than  those  in  the  county,  but  during  the 
last  census  period  the  decrease  in  the  city  was  as  great  as  that  in 
the  county.  Thus  on  the  negative  side  too,  the  figures  show  that 
the  negroes  of  Albemarle  are  not  going  to  town  but  are  staying 
in  the  country.  This  condition  is  not  true  all  over  the  South  and 

—5 


66  P HELPS- STORKS   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

there  has  been  much  alarm  occasioned  by  the  tendency  of  the  ne 
gro  to  move  to  the  city,  but  it  is  true  in  Albemarle  County  and  it 
is  true  for  the  state  as  a  whole.  9 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  what  is  said  of  Albemarle  is  true 
in  large  measure  of  other  counties  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
and  the  population  movements  for  the  two  races,  the  land  values, 
the  relative  size  of  white  and  negro  farms,  the  absence  of  ten 
ancy  among  the  negroes,  and  the  crops  grown  by  the  negroes 
have  been  discussed.  It  has  been  pointed  out,  further,  that  the 
figures  tend  to  show  that  in  Albemarle  County,  at  least,  the  ne 
groes  are  staying  in  the  country.  From  this  we  can  proceed  to  a 
study  of  the  actual  conditions  among  the  individual  negro  inhab 
itants  of  the  rural  districts  of  the  county. 

9.  The  figures  are  given  in  Chap.  II  above. 


CHAPTER    V. 

ECONOMIC   CONDITIONS   AMONG   THE;   NEGROES   IN 

COUNTY. 

The  occupations  found  among  the  rural  negroes  in  Albemarle 
County  are  those  characteristic  of  a  county  where  most  of  the 
agriculture  is  undertaken  by  the  whites,  where  there  is  consider 
able  wealth,  where  the  agriculture  is  diversified,  and  where  the 
population  is  fairly  dense.  We  have  noticed  the  diversity  of  the 
agriculture :  cereals,  peaches,  apples,  grapes,  hay,  cattle,  dairying, 
etc.,  and  the  mere  mentioning  of  these  products  suggests  several 
occupations  which  are  to  be  added  to  the  usual  routine  of  work 
in  a  section  devoted  solely  to  the  cultivation  of  corn  and  wheat. 
Furthermore,  there  is  always  a  demand  for  domestic  service  and 
the  two  railroads  which  run  through  the  county  employ  a  num 
ber  of  negroes  as  section  hands. 

Since  the  War  there  have  been  two  tendencies  affecting  the  oc 
cupations  of  the  negroes:  (1)  increased  diversification  as  a  re 
sult  of  the  more  complex  economic  society,  and  (2)  the  compe 
tition  of  the  whites  has  tended  to  limit  the  pursuits  of  the  negroes 
to  those  callings  not  requiring  particular  skill.  In  Albemarle 
County  before  the  war,  the  bulk  of  the  negroes  were  slaves  and 
were  either  agricultural  laborers  or  domestics.  There  were,  how 
ever,  as  elsewhere  in  Virginia,  a  considerable  number  of  free 
negroes,  many  of  whom  owned  small  farms  or  were  trained  ar 
tisans.  Among  the  slaves,  also,  there  were  negroes  trained  in 
such  trades  as  shoemaking,  carpentry,  plastering,  blacksmithing 
and  the  like.  The  presence  of  these  negroes,  trained  in  skilled 
labor,  prevented  the  growth  of  the  white  artisan  class,  and  the 
negroes,  immediately  after  the  War,  came  almost  to  monopolize 
these  trades.  This  fact,  together  with  the  negroes  natural  tend 
ency  to  "move  on,"  accounted  for  the  movement  to  the  cities 
after  the  war  where  all  who  were  trained  during  slavery  became 
barbers,  masons,  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  wheelwrights,  negro 
shopkeepers,  etc. 

In  the  past  twenty-five  years,  however,  the  industrial  changes 

67 


68  PHELPS-STOK^S    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

which  have  taken  place  in  the  South  have  done  much  to  minimize 
the  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  whites  that  these  trades  were 
meant  solely  for  the  negroes,  and  negroes  have  had  to  face  their 
competition  in  all  of  these  pursuits.  In  all  of  the  building  trades 
the  negroes,  who  once  had  a  monopoly  on  them,  are  being  forced 
into  the  background  and  in  the  towns  the  Greeks  have  taken  the 
shoeshining  and  restaurant  business  from  them.  According  to 
the  testimony  of  old  residents,  twenty  years  ago  negro  black 
smiths  and  carpenters  were  more  numerous  in  the  country  than 
were  the  whites.  Today,  while  a  considerable  number  of  negro 
carpenters  and  blacksmiths  remain  scattered  through  the  country, 
the  bulk  of  this  business  is  done  by  whites.1  The  negroes  have 
either  gone  to  farm  laboring  or  have  moved  to  towns,  where  they 
can,  as  merchants  or  artisans,  cater  to  negro  trade;  their  utter 
failure  to  compete  with  the  whites  has  usually  driven  them  out 
of  those  occupations  where  they  .must  serve  white  customers. 

In  the  Rivanna  District  of  Albemarle  County  103  homes  were 
visited  by  the  writer  and  the  occupations  asked.  These  homes 
were  taken  from  about  three  times  that  many  scattered  all  over 
the  District,  and  the  attempt  was  made  to  visit  some  of  all  kinds 
in  each  group,  so  the  results,  while  not  complete,  are  typical. 
The  total  number  of  people  for  which  a  record  was  obtained 
was  486,  those  above  ten  years  of  age  are  divided  among  occu- 

1.  This,  however,  is  due  solely  to  the  competition  of  the  more 
efficient  white  workers,  and  not  to  any  prejudice  existing  against 
working  in  the  same  trade  as  is  the  case  in  the  North.  Stone,  in 
his  "Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem,"  says  that  this  is  the 
place  "where  the  negro  profits  by  the  drawing  of  the  Southern  color 
line.  The  white  masons  and  carpenters  work  side  by  side  with  the 
negro  because  they  know  that  this  line  exists  for  them  just  exactly 
as  it  does  for  the  lawyer  or  the  doctor.  The  negro  recognizes  that 
the  white  man  is  not  lowered  one  particle  in  the  estimation  of  the 
community,  because  of  his  occupation.  Each  knows  that  the  status 
of  the  other  remains  unchanged."  166. 

Speaking  on  the  same  subject,  Booker  T.  Washington  says,  "It  is 
in  'the  South  that  the  black  man  finds  an  open  sesame  in  labor,  in 
dustry,  and  business  that  is  not  surpassed  anywhere.  It  is  here  that 
that  form  of  slavery  which  prevents  a  man  from  selling  his  labor  to 
whom  he  pleases  on  account  of  his  color,  is  almost  unknown." 
Quoted  in  E.  G.  Murphy,  "Problems  of  the  Present  South,"  184. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  69 

pations  as  follows :  regular  farm  hands  41 ;  railroad  and  road 
hands  20;  carpenters,  masons  and  cement  workers  9;  blacksmiths 
3 ;  shoemaker  1 ;  chauffeurs  and  coachmen  4 ;  store  keepers  3 ; 
"blind  tiger"  keeper  1;  farmers  (devoting  all  of  their  time  to 
owned  or  rented  land)  24;  housewives  (devoting  all  time  to  their 
own  places)  67;  washerwomen  and  housemaids  (also  house 
wives)  36;  teachers  3;  preachers  2;  living  at  home  unoccupied 
and  dependent  106,  94  of  whom  are  children  above  the  age  of 
ten,  but  still  attending  school.  This  is  a  total  of  341,  the  145 
children  make  up  the  balance.  Following  the  classification  used 
in  the  Farmville  report  2  for  those  over  10,  we  have :  those  work 
ing  on  their  own  account,  50;  laborers  82;  house  service  103; 
day  domestic  service  36;  at  home  unoccupied  and  dependent,  106. 

TABLE:   XV:  PER  CENT.   OF  NEGROES  VISITED   IN  ALBE- 
MARLE  COUNTY,  OF  SANDY  SPRINGS3  NEGROES, 
AND  OF  TOTAL  POPULATION  OF  U.  S.  EN 
GAGED  IN  EACH  CLASS  OF  GAIN 
FUL  OCCUPATION. 


Class  of 

Albemarle 

Sandy  Sp'gs    U.  S. 

Occupation             Males  Females 

Total  Percent. 

per  cent. 

per  cent. 

Agriculture    

86 

4 

90 

52.3 

45.48 

39.65 

Professional    .... 

2 

3 

5 

2.91 

2.76 

4.15 

Domestic  and 

personal    

4 

36 

40 

23.25 

43.97 

19.18 

Trades  and 

trans  

23 

1 

24 

13.95 

1.51 

14.63 

Mfgs.   and  trades. 

13 

13 

7.57 

6.28 

22.39 

Total    

128 

44 

172 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

The  percentage  for  trade  and  transportation,  it  will  be  noticed, 
is  unusually  high  and  is  accounted  for  by  the  demand  for  ne 
groes  as  workmen  on  the  railroads  in  the  county.  Because  of 
the  double  tracking  now  being  done  in  the  county  by  the  South 
ern  Railway  this  is  perhaps  a  little  above  normal  although  all 


2.  W.    E.    DuBois,    "Negroes    of    Farmville,    Virginia,"    Bulletin    of 
Dept.    of   Labor    No.    14. 

3.  W.   T.   Thorn,   "The   Negroes   of   Sandy   Springs,    Md.,"    Bulletin 
Department  of  Labor,   No.  32. 


70  PHEI.PS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

but  two  of  the  twenty  railway  hands  gave  this  as  their  regular 
occupation. 

The  following  table  gives  the  occupations  and  incomes  of 
twenty  families  interviewed.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
real  income  is  somewhat  higher  than  would  be  indicated  by  the 
figures  because  practically  all  of  the  negroes  supplement  their 
incomes  with  gardens  and  poultry. 

TABLE  XVI:  OCCUPATIONS  AND  INCOMES  OF  22  TYPICAL 
HEADS  OF  FAMILIES  IN  THE  RIVANNA  DISTRICT. 


Occupation  *o 


be 

X 
C/2 

N      G 

^    *r^ 

K>        <U 

bfl 
rt    t_ 

^>    <v 

la 

c    o 
c    u 

<  .s 

*      w 
M-c 

0    ^ 

°'  jo 

o 

H 

R.    R.   hand  

40 

m 

5 

32 

$9.00 

$288 

$288 

R.    R.   hand  

38 

m 

7 

52 

9.00 

468 

468 

R.    R.   hand  

30 

m 

3 

30 

9.00 

270 

50 

320 

Farmer 

48 

m 

12 

350 

350 

Farmer   

69 

m 

5 

250 

100 

350 

Farmer   

30 

m 

2 

100 

150* 

250 

Farmer   

77 

m 

3 

300 

300 

Farm  hand  

42 

m 

6 

52 

4.50 

234 

234 

Farm  hand  

55 

m 

5 

30 

4.50 

135 

lOOf 

235 

Farm  hand 

42 

m 

2 

52 

180 

180 

Dairyman    

50 

m 

9 

52 

6.00 

312 

25 

337 

Stableman    

40 

m 

7 

52 

600 

600 

Chauffeur  

37 

m 

10 

52 

360 

50 

410 

Carpenter 

37 

m 

2 

30 

15.00 

450 

450 

Carpenter    

35 

m 

9 

35 

9.00 

315 

50 

365 

Shoemaker    .... 

50 

m 

4 

300 

300 

Storekeeper    .  .  . 

44 

m 

4 

400 

100$ 

500 

Preacher    

68 

m 

3 

120 

100§ 

220 

Blacksmith    .... 

70 

m 

2 

250 

50 

300 

Day  laborer   .  .  . 

40 

m 

7 

30 

6.00 

180 

50 

230 

Washwoman    .  . 

38 

f 

3 

52 

144 

144 

Washwoman 

52 

f 

2 

52 

72 

72 

*Wife  cooks. 

fSon's  wages  and  sale  of  crop. 

JSale  price  of  crop. 

§Sale  price  of  crop. 


RURAI,  LAND  OWNERSHIP  71 

A  brief  discussion  of  each  class  of  occupation  found  among 
the  negroes  in  Albemarle  County  will  be  instructive : 

Broadly  speaking  the  negro  undertaker  in  business  enterprise 
is  a  new  thing.  But  the  negro  foreman  on  the  plantation  was  a 
comparatively  familiar  figure  and  many  of  the  slaves  who  were 
trained  as  cobblers,  blacksmiths,  carpenters,  cooks,  etc.,  went 
into  business  on  their  own  account  after  the  War.  But  the  ef 
fect  of  white  competition  and  the  fact  that  so  many  of  the 
younger  generation  have  not  had  the  necessary  training  has 
tended  to  crowd  the  negroes  out  of  these  trades.  Those  who  are 
left  are,  almost  without  exception,  either  the  very  old  negroes 
or  those  who  have  attended  one  of  the  industrial  schools  in  the 
state. 

Of  the  three  blacksmiths  visited,  two  own  their  own  shops  and 
the  other  rents  from  the  widow  of  its  former  owner.  Two  are 
well  along  in  years,  one  having  been  a  slave ;  and  the  third,  hav 
ing  but  little  work  to  do  in  his  shop  farms  twenty  acres  of  corn 
on  shares.  One  owner  has  only  his  shop,  but  he  earns  on  an 
average  of  $5  per  week  from  his  trade;  the  other,  who  owns 
four  acres  of  land  besides  his  shop,  has  a  business  of  about  $300 
and  the  -proceeds  of  his  garden.  The  third  blacksmith  visited 
gave  his  income  at  about  $350,  $200  of  which  is  derived  from 
the  sale  of  his  wheat  and  corn.  There  are  several  white  black 
smith  shops  in  the  same  district  which,  with  better  equipment, 
appear  to  be  doing  a  better  business,  but  the  negroes  make  a 
fairly  good  living. 

The  shoemaker  interviewed  owns  his  home  near  the  commun 
ity  of  Stony  Point,  but  not  his  shop.  He  is  a  free  born  native 
of  Washington,  D.  C.,  but  has  been  living  in  this  county  for 
twenty-two  years  and  his  grown  sons  remained  in  the  coun 
try.  He  gave  his  income  at  $25  per  month  and  his  home  is  worth 
about  $200. 

Three  store  keepers  and  one  "blind  tiger''  keeper  were  inter 
viewed.  One  store  keeper,  near  Keswick,  owns  his  own  home 
and  store  and  fifteen  acres  of  land,  his  whole  property  being 
worth  $1,200.  His  mercantile  business,  he  says,  nets  him  some 
$400  per  year  and  his  crop  he  sells  for  from  $50  to  $100.  The 
second  merchant,  in  the  same  district,  owns  his  store  and  twelve 


72  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

acres  of  land  which  are  worth  about  $600  and  carry  a  mortgage 
of  $175  which  was  borrowed  to  finish  payment  on  his  place. 
His  store  nets  him  about  $400  per  year  and  his  wife  earns  some 
thing  from  washing.  The  third  store  keeper  questioned  owns  a 
store  and  home  valued  at  about  $800  and  he  nets  about  $250  from 
his  business.  His  whole  place  is  tidy  and  in  good  repair  and  he 
carries  a  savings  account  in  one  of  the  Charlottesville  banks. 
The  fourth  "merchant,"  a  woman  living  with  her  mother,  has  a 
place  worth  about  $1,000  and  fifteen  acres  in  timber.  The  pro 
ceeds  from  her  illicit  sale  of  liquor  net  her  about  $150  per  year 
and  her  mother  earns  about  half  that  amount  doing  day  service 
in  neighboring  white  homes.  While  there  are  many  white  stores 
scattered  throughout  the  county,  the  negroes  cater  to  the  trade 
of  their  own  race  and  are  not  seriously  handicapped  by  the  white 
competition.  The  store  keepers  questioned  were  all,  however, 
exceptionally  good  negroes  which  probably  accounts  for  their 
success  more  than  their  vocation.  Be  that  as  it  may,  few  negroes 
were  found  in  better  economic  condition. 

Of  most  importance  among  the  undertakers  of  the  county  are, 
of  course,  the  farmers.  Of  103  negro  rural  land  owners  taken 
all  over  /the  Rivanna  District,  24  or  not  quite  one  fourth  devote 
all  of  their  time  to  the  care  of  their  crops,  and  in  several  of  these 
families  the  income  is  supplemented  by  the  wages  of  grown  sons 
who  work  on  white  farms  or  by  domestic  service  done  by  the 
women  of  the  family.  There  is  a  great  diversity  in  the  condition 
of  the  farmers ;  there  are  some,  usually  old  negroes,  who  own 
farms  of  100  acres  or  more  of  excellent  land  in  good  cultivation, 
and  there  are  others  who,  on  twenty  or  thirty  acres  of  inferior 
land  bought  at  a  low  rate,  try  to  eke  out  an  existence.  Besides 
these  there  are  the  fifty  or  sixty  owners  of  small  farms  who  work 
at  regular  or  odd  jobs  and  leave  the  care  of  their  crops  to  their 
families,  but  these  are  not  considered  here  as  agricultural  entre 
preneurs.  The  best  farm  operator  in  the  district  who  was  ques 
tioned  is  an  old  man  born  before  the  war.  He  owns  a  farm  near 
Earlysville  of  70  acres  which,  with  improvements,  is  worth  some 
$2,500.  Two  miles  below  he  owns  another  place  of  136  acres 
which  he  uses  for  grazing  hogs,  cattle,  and  horses.  His  stock, 
exclusive  of  young  pigs  and  poultry,  is  worth  about  $2,000  and 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  73 

includes  14  horses,  20  cattle,  and  10  hogs.  Sixty  acres  of  his 
upper  place  he  has  planted  in  wheat,  corn,  oats,  and  hay  and  he 
raises  on  an  average  of  five  barrels  of  corn  to  an  acre.  His  flour 
and  meal  is  all  ground  from  his  own  grains  and  his  poultry  and 
meat  are  all  raised  on  the  place.  He  feeds  up  practically  all  of 
his  crop  and  last  year  sold  his  cattle  and  hogs  for  $250.  In  bet 
ter  years  he  says  that  he  has  done  much  better  than  this ;  he  said, 
"I  ain't  making  much  now,  but  I  has  made  it  as  you  can  see  by 
looking  around."  And,  indeed,  it  was  very  apparent:  the  house, 
a  two  story  frame  building  of  eight  rooms,  is  well  painted,  all 
of  the  fences  and  outhouses  are  in  perfect  repair,  and  his  equip 
ment  includes  wagons,  two^horse  plows,  and  several  small  plows. 
While  he  can  neither  read  nor  write  himself  he  has  sent  his  chil 
dren  to  school  and  has  kept  his  grown  sons  in  the  country  where 
they  own  smaller  farms  of  their  own. 

"Another  farmer,  also  successful,  owns  60  acres  of  land  and 
values  his  place  at  $1,400.  He  rotates  wheat  with  corn  and 
grazes  his  land  the  third  year  and  uses  both  manure  and  a  chem 
ical  fertilizer.  He  sold  his  crop  from  ,thirty  acres  last  year,  after 
taking  out  what  was  needed  for  his  own  use,  for  nearly  $300. 
He  is  77  years  old  and  was  raised  in  slavery,  but  has  gradually 
acquired  this  little  farm  which  affords  him  and  his  wife  a  good 
living.  His  children  have  not  remained  in  the  country.  H.  T., 
typical  of  the  less  prosperous  farmers  but  thrifty,  owns  three 
acres  and  rents  six.  He  sold  his  crop  last  year  for  $50  and 
enough  -poultry  and  eggs  to  bring  the  total  to  $90.  His  daughter, 
the  only  child  living  with  him,  helps  him  by  her  washing  and  the 
three  people  live  comfortably  on  the  income.  His  house  and  out 
houses  are  in  good  repair  and  his  place,  including  equipment,  is 
worth  $1,200.  Another  thrifty  negro  questioned  is  a  breeder 
and  on  his  six  acres  of  land  raises  enough  corn  and  hay  to  feed 
a  jack,  a  cow,  and  a  horse,  besides  a  large  garden  for  his  own 
use.  His  income  is  about  $15  per  month  which  is  increased  to 
about  $20  by  his  wife's  washing.  J.  K.,  who  owns  22  acres  of 
land  and  a  home  worth  about  $1,000,  makes  a  good  living  for  a 
family  of  twelve  on  his  own  land  and  fifty  adjoining  acres  which 
he  farms  on  shares.  He  raises  wheat,  corn,  and  stock  and  last 
year  received  $350  for  his  share  of  the  crop.  In  his  large  garden 


74  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

he  raises  more  than  enough  for  his  own  use  and  his  wife  cans 
both  fruit  and  vegetables  for  the  winter. 

These  instances  of  negro  farmers  in  the  county  are  not  excep 
tional  but  typical  of  the  upper  group  who  work  hard  and  practice 
thrift.  Of  the  twenty  four  interviewed  about  half  have  a  money 
income  of  over  $200  and  in  some  cases  it  is  over  $300.  Among 
the  other  half  the  incomes  are  found  dropping  as  low  as  $50  and 
reporting  no  other  means  of  support.  These,  however,  are  usually 
so  ignorant  of  all  things  connected  with  money  that  their  state 
ments  can  hardly  be  relied  upon.  By  the  sale  of  chickens,  an 
occasional  hog,  or  by  an  odd  job  probably  all  of  them  pick  up 
enough  ito  make  their  annual  income  total  $100  which,  from  ob 
servation,  seems  to  be  about  the  minimum.  With  the  help  of  a 
garden,  chickens,  and  hogs  a  family  of  four  or  five  can  live  with 
reasonable  comfort  on  this  amount. 

In  general,  then,  it  may  be  said  that  the  negro  farmers  in  Ri- 
vanna  District  range  all  the  way  from  those  whose  incomes  are 
large  enough  to  afford  a  good  living  and  an  opportunity  to  lay 
something  away  to  those  who  are  contented  to  eke  out  a  bare 
existence  by  raising  a  little  corn  on  rocky  land  and  earning  a 
dollar  or  two  here  and  there  wherever  opportunity  offers.  But 
even  this  class,  which  is  decidedly  poorer  than  the  home  owning 
farm  hand  class,  is  better  off  than  the  same  under  group  in  the 
cities.  With  a  garden  and  a  few  chickens,  and  a  wife  to  do  the 
work,  they  can  make  a  living  in  spite  of  their  shiftlessness,  and 
being  removed  from  many  of  the  temptations  of  the  city  they 
can  not  become  such  heavy  burdens  on  society. 

There  are  no  negro  lawyers  in  the  county  and  no  negro  doctors 
in  the  negro  communities  studied.  There  is,  however,  a  negro 
doctor  in  Charlottesville,  a  .graduate  of  Harvard  and  respected 
by  both  races,  who  has  some  considerable  practice  among  the 
ne.groes  in  the  county.  Both  of  the  preachers  interviewed  were 
farmers  rather  than  ministers,  but  both  were  reasonably  well  in 
formed  and  one  was  very  intelligent.  He  has  no  regular  church 
but  preaches  around  at  various  places  for  whatever  is  given  him. 
His  living  he  makes  from  a  farm  of  23  acres  and  the  help  of  his 
daughter  who  is  a  house  servant.  The  other  preacher  is  buying 
a  farm.  They  both  appear  to  be  intelligently  interested  in  the 


RURAL,  LAND  OWNERSHIP  75 

welfare  of  their  people.  One  gave  his  politics  as  Republican, 
while  the  other,  who  said  he  was  going  to  vote  the  Democratic 
ticket  hereafter,  frankly  said  that  most  negroes  were  Republicans 
through  ignorance. 

Of  the  53  negro  teachers  in  Albemarle  County  40  are  women. 
In  the  Rivanna  District  there  are  12  negro  teachers,  of  whom  3 
are  men  and  9  are  women.  The  average  salary  paid  to  negro 
teachers  is  $26.87,  the  average  for  negro  men  being  $28.50  and 
that  for  negro  women  $24.90  for  an  average  session  of  6.8 
months.  The  highest  salary  paid  to  a  negro  is  $45  which  is  paid 
to  the  principal  of  the  Union  Ridge  School  in  Charlottes ville  Dis 
trict. 

All  of  the  negroes  who  are  in  the  professions  occupy  high  po 
sitions  with  the  members  of  their  race.  The  negro  preacher  is 
probably  the  most  influential  of  all,  and  there  was  hardly  a  negro 
visited  who  did  not  speak  with  a  certain  amount  of  awe  and 
pride  of  "the  reverend  so-and-so."  The  negro  doctor  of  Char- 
lottesville  is  known,  by  reputation  at  least,  and  held  in  high  es 
teem  by  practically  every  negro  in  the  Rivanna  District. 

Of  the  skilled  workmen  visited  there  were  seven  carpenters, 
one  brick  worker,  one  cement  worker,  one  linesman,  and  two 
chauffeurs.  Two  of  the  carpenters  are  skilled  workmen  earning 
$2.50  and  $3  per  day,  one  of  them  having  learned  the  trade  at 
the  Petersburg  Normal  and  Industrial  School  and  the  other  in 
Cleveland,  Ohio.  Of  the  remaining  five,  three  are  regularly  em 
ployed  as  carpentry  workers  at  $1.50  per  day  while  the  other  two 
work  at  odd  jobs  for  the  same  wages.  All  seven  own  their 
homes,  and  farm  from  seven  to  ten  acres  of  land.  With  gardens, 
poultry,  and  a  few  head  of  livestock,  their  condition  is,  generally 
speaking,  about  the  same  as  that  of  the  better  class  of  farm 
operators. 

The  brick  worker  interviewed  is  regularly  employed  in  the 
Charlottesville  yards  at  $2.50  per  day.  He  owns  his  place  some 
ten  miles  from  town  with  65  acres  worth  about  $1,500.  About 
thirty  acres  of  his  place  is  planted  in  wheat  and  corn  and  is  tended 
by  his  brother  who  lives  on  an  adjoining  farm.  In  the  same  sec 
tion,  J.  W.,  a  cement  worker  who  is  regularly  employed  at  $3 
per  day  has  ten  acres  of  land  with  a  .good  house  and  orderly 


76  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

premises.  The  telephone  linesman,  who  is  reported  here  rather 
than  among  the  common  laborers,  is  regularly  employed  in  Char- 
lottesville  at  $1.50  per  day  and  his  place,  some  seven  miles  south 
of  town,  is  worth  about  $350  including  three  acres  of  land.  He 
raises  on  this  little  place  his  own  vegetables,  meat,  and  lard.  Of 
the  two  chauffeurs  reported,  one  owns  a  two  acre  place  well 
stocked  with  poultry  and  worth  about  $300,  and  the  other  owns 
a  place  worth  about  $3,000,  but  does  not  live  there  with  his  fam- 
ily. 

Here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  .merchants,  it  is  probably  due  to 
the  character  of  the  negroes  who  enter  these  callings,  rather  than 
to  the  callings  themselves,  that  makes  the  class  as  a  whole  pros 
perous.  With  a  home  and  several  acres  of  land  in  the  country 
they  are  able  to  make  a  large  part  of  their  living  on  their  gardens, 
poultry,  and  hogs.  These  items,  added  to  their  already  higher 
nominal  wages,  give  them  a  real  wage  considerably  higher  than 
any  other  class  of  the  negro  rural  population  unless,  perhaps,  the 
store  keepers. 

The  laborers  in  the  county  may  be  divided  roughly  into  three 
classes :  ( 1 )  farm  laborers,  working  regularly  either  throughout 
the  year  or  during  nine  months  of  the  year  for  $.75  per  day, 
(2)  railway  and  road  laborers  who  work  as  section  hands  or  on 
the  county  roads  for  $1.50  per  day,  and  (3)  those  who  work  at 
odd  jobs  for  $.75  and  $1  per  day.  Of  the  negro  rural  land  own 
ers  visited  there  were  41  of  the  first  class,  20  of  the  second,  and 
21  of  the  third. 

A  few  of  the  most  prosperous  homes  in  the  Rivanna  District 
were  found  to  belong  to  the  negroes  of  the  first  class,  i.  e.  farm 
hands.  One  negro  who  was  interviewed,  for  instance,  works 
regularly  as  a  farm  hand  and  his  wife  washes  for  two  families 
for  which  she  receives  $5  per  month.  This  brings  the  family  in 
come  in  money  to  about  $23 ;  and  on  his  place,  which  is  worth 
about  $500  and  includes  six  acres  of  land,  he  has  a  garden  and 
some  75  chickens.  But  "if  I  didn't  can  things  for  the  winter," 
he  said,  "I  would  certainly  go  to  the  poor-house."  As  this  well 
illustrates,  he  is  one  of  the  more  thrifty  class  which  comprises 
about  30  or  40C/C  of  the  home  owning  farm  laborers.  An  ex 
ample  of  the  less  thrifty  60  or  70%  is  L.  B.  who  owns  two  acres 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  77 

of  very  good  land  and  receives  $.75  per  day  for  about  nine 
months  of  the  year.  But  his  garden  is  poor,  he  cans  no  fruit  or 
vegetables,  and  his  livestock  and  poultry  is  limited  to  about  ten 
hens  of  the  poorest  variety.  The  small  land  owners  who  work 
out  on  white  farms  fall,  therefore,  between  these  two  extremes.4 
By  exercising  thrift  they  can,  and  many  of  them  do,  accumulate 
enough  for  neat  and  orderly  little  homes.  But  for  the  less  in 
dustrious  their  little  piece  of  land  offers  no  opportunity;  they 
are  content  to  live  from  hand  to  mouth  on  their  bare  wage  of 
$.75  per  day. 

Conditions  among  the  second  class,  i.  e.  section  and  road  hands 
who  received  $1.50  per  day,  are  much  the  same.  Those  who 
work  regularly  and  take  advantage  of  the  possibilities  of  their 
own  land  do  well,  while  those  who  work  only  part  of  the  year 
and  make  no  attempt  to  supplement  their  income  with  gardens 
and  poultry  manage  to  "scrape  along"  on  an  income  of  from  $12 
to  $15  per  month  and  allow  their  places  to  run  down.  R.  M., 
for  instance,  who  works  regularly  as  a  section  hand,  owns  a  place 
of  four  acres  with  garden  and  chickens  worth  about  $400  and 
spends  about  $30  per  month  to  support  his  family.  L.  S.,  on  the 
other  hand,  does  not  work  regularly,  and  while  he  makes  a  pre 
tense  at  a  garden,  its  production  is  small  and  he  is  compelled  to 
buy  the  groceries  and  canned  goods  that  he  should  raise.  He 
spends,  according  to  his  own  calculations,  about  $17  per  month, 
or  all  that  he  makes.  In  one  case  it  is  a  matter  of  working  every 
day  and  then  spending  what  is  necessary;  in  the  other,  $17  is 
spent  and  then  the  necessary  amount  of  work  is  done. 

The  third  class  of  laborers  mentioned,  twenty-one  in  number, 
with  hardly  any  exceptions,  live  from  hand  to  mouth  and  make 
practically  nothing  from  the  soil.  The  same  type  exists  every 
where  and  they  are  no  different  in  Albemarle  County.  Woofter 
describes  the  same  class  in  Athens,  Ga. :  "All  of  these  laborers 
look  upon  themselves  as  doing  'public  work.'  That  is  to  say,  they 
shift  their  employment  as  the  public  demands.  Many  of  this 
class  work  only  when  they  can  not  see  where  the  next  meal  is 
coming  from.  This  means  that  in  many  instances  some  other 


4.  See  below,  19. 


78  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

member  of  the  family  besides  the  father  has  to  seek  some  steady 
source  of  income,  such  as  washing  or  domestic  service.  The 
majority  of  this  group  are  of  the  most  shiftless  class."  5 

The  shiftless  class  just  referred  to  is  very  largely  responsible 
for  the  28  wives  of  the  103  negro  landowners  who  find  it  neces 
sary  to  take  in  washing  ,and  for  the  6  who  act  as  house  servants. 
And  the  reason  for  the  inefficiency  of  the  modern  negro  servants 
is  to  be  explained,  very  largely,  by  the  fact  that  they  come  from 
this  shiftless  class.  As  has  been  so  often  .pointed  out,  domestic 
service  has,  in  the  estimation  of  the  negroes,  dropped  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  place  since  1860.  Formerly  the  domestics 
were  the  picked  slaves ;  now  they  are  apt  to  come  from  the  fam 
ilies  of  the  most  worthless  class.  DuBois  summarizes  the  situa 
tion  as  follows :  "The  negroes  are  coming  to  regard  the  work 
as  a  relic  of  slavery  and  degrading,  and  only  enter  it  from  sheer 
necessity,  and  then  as  a  makeshift.  Employers  find  an  increas 
ing  number  of  careless  and  impudent  young  people  who  neglect 
their  work,  and  in  some  cases  show  vicious  tendencies,  and  de 
moralize  the  children  of  the  families.  *  *  *  The  servants, 
receiving  less  than  they  think  they  ought,  are  often  careful  to 
render  as  little  for  it  as  possible."  6  Real  wages  are,  on  the  other 
hand,  very  high  and  it  is  probably  not  an  overstatement  to  say 
that  domestic  service  is  as  costly  in  Albemarle  County  as  in  any 
other  -rural  portion  of  the  United  States.7  The  remedy  for  such 
well  paid  inefficiency  lies,  of  course,  in  finding  a  modern  substi 
tute  for  the  domestic  training  that  was  formerly  given  in  the 
master's  kitchen.8  From  the  negroes'  standpoint,  except  for  the 
very  thrifty  families,  domestic  service  was,  in  the  cases  observed, 
always  a  makeshift. 

Carrying  out  the  enumeration  used  in  the  Sandy  Springs  Re 
port,9  questions  were  asked  to  obtain  the  data  for  the  three  con- 

5.  Woofter,  "The  Negroes  of  Athens,   Ga.,"  41. 

6.  W.    E.    B.    DuBois,    "Negroes    of    Farmville,    Va.,"    Bulletin    De 
partment  of  Labor,  No.  14,  21. 

7.  This  is  the  opinion  of  people  who  have  lived  elsewhere  and  have 
considered  the  elements  entering  into  the  real  wages  of  the  negroes. 

8.  Virginia  Church,   "The   Servant   Question,"   Press   of  the   Hamp 
ton  Institute,  1912. 

9.  W.  T.  Thorn,  "The  Negroes  of  Sandy  Springs,   Md.,"  85. 


RURAI,  LAND  OWNERSHIP  79 

ceptions  of  the  word  "family:"  (1)  the  possible  family,  i.  e.  the 
parents  and  all  children  ever  born  to  them  living;  (2)  the  real 
family,  i.  e.  the  parents  and  all  children  living  at  present ;  and 
(3)  the  economic  family,  i.  e.  all  persons,  related  or  unrelated, 
living  under  one  roof  under  the  conditions  of  family  life.  For 
this  purpose  it  is  the  economic  family  that  is  of  importance  and 
this,  compared  with  that  of  Sandy  Springs,  and  of  Farmville,  is 
given  in  the  table  below.  The  resulting  average  of  persons  per 
economic  family  seems  to  be  too  low  when  compared  with  the 
Sandy  Springs  family,  but  it  is  higher  than  that  shown  in  the 
Farmville  Report. 

TABLE  XVII:  NUMBER  AND  SIZE  OF  ECONOMIC  FAMILIES 

INTERVIEWED  IN  RIVANNA  DISTRICT  COMPARED 

WITH  SANDY  SPRINGS  AND  FARMVILLE.io 


Rivanna 

s.  s. 

Farmville 

Family   of 

Fam. 

Per. 

Fam. 

Per. 

Fam, 

.  Per. 

1   member    

2 

2 

9 

9 

13 

13 

2   members    

21 

42 

19 

38 

52 

104 

3    members    

21 

63 

20 

60 

34 

102 

4   members    

11 

44 

17 

68 

48 

192 

5   members    , 

13 

65 

23 

115 

31 

155 

6   members    

9 

54 

26 

156 

26 

156 

7   members    

10 

70 

14 

98 

19 

133 

8    members    , 

5 

40 

9 

72 

16 

128 

9   members    

6 

54 

15 

135 

11 

99 

10   members    

3 

30 

5 

50 

5 

50 

11   members    

5 

55 

7 

77 

12   members    , 

1 

12 

1 

12 

13   members    

1 

13 

1 

13 

14   members    , 

1 

14 

Total    

103 

4.89 

1.65 

8.95 

2.62 

12.09 

Average    

4.74 

5.42 

4.61 

Out  of  103  economic  families  questioned  in  the  Rivanna  Dis 
trict  there  are  66,  or  64^,  of  from  2  to  5  members  while  the 
same  percentages  for  Sandy  Springs  and  Farmville  are  48  and 
63  respectively.  Since  \ve  are  here  dealing  with  a  rural  district 


10.  The   figures   for   Sandy   Springs   and    Farmville   are   taken    from 
Labor  Department  Bulletin,  No.  32,  "The  Negroes  of  Sandy  Springs." 


80 


PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 


we  would  expect  conditions  to  approximate  those  of  Sandy 
Springs  rather  than  those  of  Farmville,  and  the  fact  that  the  eco 
nomic  family  is  a  little  smaller  in  the  Rivanna  District  is  prob 
ably  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  few  grown  children  or 
otherwise  dependent  people  were  found  among  the  families  inter 
viewed.  The  families  usually  consisted  only  of  the  parents  and 
children  not  yet  old  enough  to  be  economically  independent. 

The  table  of  number  of  families  by  size  of  family  and  annual 
income,  which  follows,  must  be  taken  with  a  good  many  grains 
of  precaution.  For  the  laborers,  storekeepers,  and  artisans  the 
estimates  are  reasonably  accurate  but  for  the  others  it  is  largely 
a  matter  of  guess-work  and  in  some  instance  is  probably  too  low. 

TABLE  XVIII:  NUMBER  OF  FAMILIES  INTERVIEWED  BY 
SIZE  AND  ANNUAL  INCOME. 


1  mem- 
Annual    income                  her 
$50   or   less                           1 

2 

3 

1 

4 

5 

6 

7     8 

over 
9       10 

Total 
2 

$50    to   $100  fi 

9 

2 

1 

12 

$100 

to  $150 

2 

3 

9 

2 

1 

10 

$150 

to  $200  

3 

2 

3 

3 

o 

4 

1 

2 

20 

$200 

to    $250  

3 

4 

1 

3 

9 

3      2 

1 

19 

$250 

to    $350 

0 

9 

1 

0 

0 

1 

2 

13 

$350 

to  $450  

1 

2 

1 

2 

2 

7 

over 

$450     

2 

1 

2 

1 

7 

Not 

reported     1 

3 

7 

1 

1 

13 

Total 

2 

21 

21 

11 

13 

9 

10     5 

6 

5 

103 

Of  90  Rivanna  Families,  14,  or  15.5%,  made  incomes  of  less 
than  $100.  The  same  percentage  in  Farmville  was  found  to  be 
10.7%,  but  even  granted  that  these  estimates  are  correct,  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  Rivanna  negroes  are  in  a  poorer  economic 
condition,  because  in  the  country  the  money  income  does  not 
represent  the  real  income.  In  the  Rivanna  District,  judging  from 
those  questioned,  54.4%  of  the  negroes  make  between  $100  and 
$250,  while  in  Sandy  Springs  61%  of  them  and  in  Farmville 
34.8%  of  them  make  this  amount.  In  comparing  all  of  these 
figures  it  must  be  remembered  that  no  account  is  taken  of  the 
gardens,  poultry,  and  hogs  which,  in  about  70%  of  the  cases, 
supplement  materially  the  incomes  of  the  Albemarle  negroes. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP 


81 


Taking  these  things  into  consideration  the  real  income  is  easily 
in  excess  of  that  in  Sandy  Springs  and  the  economic  family  is 
only  S7AC/C  as  large  as  in  that  community.  Taking  these  things 
into  consideration,  and  the  difference  in  the  purchasing  power  of 
money  since  the  time  that  the  Sandy  Springs  study  was  made, 
the  income  per  economic  family  is  approximately  the  same  as  in 
Sandy  Springs,  a  semi-rural  community.  In  both  cases  there  is 
a  variation  for  the  better  from  conditions  shown  to  exist  in 
Farmville,  a  town  in  Prince  Edward  County.11 

The  following  budgets  of  family  expenditures  are  selected  from 
a  number  which  were  obtained  from  the  negroes  in  Rivanna  Dis 
trict  : 

TABLE  XIX:    BUDGETS  OF  FAMILY  EXPENDITURES. 


Income 

Expenditures 

Items                Amts. 

Items. 

Amts. 

Man's    wages    (odd   jobs)  $120.00 

Food     

..   $216.00 

Sale    of    crop  200.00 

Clothes     

.  .      120.00 

Wife's   washing    (52   weeks 

Church     

12.00 

@    $1.50)  78.00 

Liquor     

3.00 

Tobacco     

4.00 

Lodge     

13.00 

Doctor's    bill    

2.00 

Patent   medicines    

6.00 

Fuel     

15.00 

Balance     

17.00 

Total     $398.00 

Total     

.  .    $398.00 

Income    (shoemaker)     ...   $300.00 

Food    

.  .    $156.00 

Clothes     

72.00 

Church     

12.00 

Liquor     

6.00 

Tobacco     

3.00 

Lodge     

15.00 

Doctor's    bill    

5.00 

Patent  medicines    

3.00 

Fuel     

15.00 

Balance     

13.00 

Total    $300.00 


Total    $300.00 


11.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  "The  Negroes  of  Farmville,  Va.,"  Labor  De 
partment  Bulletin,  No.  14. 


82  P HELPS- STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 


Man    (laborer)     

.  .  ..    $180.00        Food     

$120.00 

Woman    (washing)     . 

36.00       Clothes     

60.00 

Church     

3.00 

Tobacco     

1.20 

Lodge     

4.80 

Doctor's    bills    

3.00 

Patent   medicines    .  .  . 

3.00 

Fuel    

12.00 

Balance     

9.00 

Total    

.  .  .  .   $216.00              Total    

$216.00 

Woman     (washing) 

$  48.00       Food    

.  .  .  .    $  60.00 

Sale  of  eggs,   etc.  .  .  . 

50.00        Clothes     

12.00 

Church     

2.40 

Lodge    

10.80 

Doctor's    bill    

2.00 

Fuel    

9.00 

Balance     

1.80 

Total     $  98.00  Total     $  98.00 

While  the  budgets  are  derived  more  or  less  from  the  imperfect 
memory  of  the  negro  informants  and  can  not  therefore  be  con 
sidered  as  absolutely  accurate,  they  at  least  give  an  idea  of  how 
the  negroes  in  the  county  divide  their  incomes.  Taking  the 
average  for  twenty  families,  whose  accounts  are  most  apt  to  be 
accurate,  we  can  obtain  the  percentage  of  total  outlay  for  the 
five  classes  of  expenditure,  which,  when  compared  with  the  con 
ditions  shown  to  exist  in  Athens,  Ga.,12  indicate  that  the  country 
negroes  are  more  thrifty  than  those  in  the  cities. 

TABLE  XX:    EXPENDITURES  OF  RIVANNA  AND  ATHENS 
NEGROES  COMPARED. 


Item 
Food 

Rivanna 
%  of  total  outlay 

49% 

Athens 
%  total  outlay 

29% 

Clothing 

24 

8 

Fuel 

3 

5 

Lodging 

0 

5 

Insurance 

3 

Miscellaneous 

17 

50 

100% 

100% 

12.  Woofter,  "The  Negroes  of  Athens,  Ga.,"  50-51. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  83 

From  this  it  would  appear  that  the  ratios  of  Engle' s  Law  13 
come  much  nearer  being  approximated  by  the  rural  negroes  in 
Rivanna  District  than  is  the  case  in  Athens.  This  is  as  would 
be  expected  since  the  naturally  wasteful  tendencies  of  the  negro 
are  curbed  in  the  rural  districts  by  the  absence  of  many  of  the 
temptations.  In  the  following  table  is  given  the  amounts  spent 
for  five  classes  of  expenditures  in  Athens,  Rivanna,  and  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States  in  general  who  earn  about  the  same 
incomes. 

TABLE  XXI:    EXPENDITURES  OF  NEGROES  OF  RIVANNA, 

OF  ATHENS,  AND  OF  NORMAL  FAMILIES 

IN  THE  U.  S.14 


Food     

Rivanna 

49% 

Athens 
i 
29% 

U.   S.  Inc. 
jnder  $200 
49  64% 

U.  S.  Inc. 
$3   to  $400 
45  59 

Clothing 

24 

8 

15  48 

14  98 

Lodging     .... 

5 

12  82 

14  14 

Fuel    and    lights  

3 

5 

8  08 

7  02 

Miscellaneous 

24 

53 

13  98 

18  27 

100% 

100% 

100% 

100% 

"The  negro's  standard  of  living,  in  Athens,  is  so  low  that  he 
is  able  to  spend  the  bulk  of  his  earnings  not  on  the  necessities 
of  life,  but  on  pleasure  and  recreation."  This  condition,  as  far 
as  it  is  possible  to  judge  from  limited  investigations,  does  not 
exist  to  any  great  extent  in  the  rural  district  ten  miles  from 
Charlottesville.  The  amount  spent  for  food  closely  approxi 
mates  that  given  as  normal  for  the  United  States.  The  fact  that 


13.  Investigations   made   by    LePlay    (1855),    Engle    (1857),   and   by 
the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Labor   (1891)   all  seem  to  agree  with  the 
following  general  inferences  drawn  by  Engle:     (1)  As  the  income  of 
a  family  increases   a   smaller  amount  is   spent  for  food,   and  the   ex 
penditure    for    clothes    remains    practically    the    same.      (2)    The    ex 
penditure   for  rent,   fuel,  and  light  remains  practically  the   same.    (3) 
With  increased  income  an  increasing  amount  is  spent  for  education, 
health,  amusements,  etc. 

14.  The   figures   for  Athens   are  taken   from  Woofter,   Ibid,   pp.   51, 
and  those   for  normal  families  in  the  U.   S*.   are  from  the   Report  of 
the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  for  1891. 


84  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

the  negroes  raise  much  of  their  food  would  tend  to  raise  this 
percentage,  but  this  is  probably  overbalanced  by  the  errors  made 
by  the  negroes  reporting  by  including  other  grocery  store  pur 
chases  such  as  oil,  soap,  matches,  and  the  like  with  food.  In  the 
rural  districts  there  is,  of  course,  no  such  thing  as  a  "service 
basket"  which  is  given  as  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  low  ex 
penditure  for  food  in  Athens.  The  difference  in  the  amount 
spent  for  clothes  is  considerable  and  the  estimates  given  by  the 
Rivanna  negroes  are  probably  too  high.  There  is  this  to  be  noted, 
however:  in  towns  where  the  negroes  are  largely  house  servants 
they  are  practically  clothed  by  gifts  while  in  the  rural  districts 
there  as  practically  none  of  this.  Furthermore,  probably  much 
of  the  money  that  is  spent  for  lodging  and  incidentals  in  the  cities 
is,  in  the  country,  to  be  registered  in  this  column.  The  low 
amount  expended  for  fuel  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  many 
of  the  negroes  cut  their  own  wood  from  woodland  or  earn  wood 
by  chopping  for  the  whites.  The  principal  items  included  under 
"miscellaneous"  for  the  Rivanna  District  are  church,  lodge  (which 
is  a  form  of  insurance),  doctor's  bills,  liquor,  patent  medicines 
and  tobacco.  The  negroes  in  these  sections  seldom  go  to  town 
and  the  proverbial  "cheap  prints,  organs,  and  bric-a-brac"  are, 
in  this  section  at  least,  lacking.  Thriftlessness,  in  the  rural  dis 
tricts  of  Albemarle,  makes  itself  noticeable  not  in  the  money 
wasted,  but  in  what  is  never  earned  by  the  practice  of  numerous 
little  economies  on  the  farms. 

In  trying  to  analyse  a  population  for  its  thrift,  whether  it 
lives  in  the  "hand  to  mouth"  manner  or  whether  it  is  looking 
out  for  the  future,  we  are  accustomed  to  look  for  three  things : 
(1)  savings  in  money  and  property  (2)  insurance,  and  (3)  to 
what  extent  an  effort  is  made  to  produce  the  maximum  wealth 
from  the  natural  resources.  We  will  examine  briefly  each  of 
these  as  found  among  the  negroes  in  the  Rivanna  District. 

Of  the  103  heads  of  families  questioned  only  six  had  bank 
accounts,  three  being  savings  accounts  and  three  current  accounts. 
No  attempt  was  made  to  ascertain  what  earnings  had  been  put 
into  property,  but  several  of  those  interviewed  had  added  to  their 
holdings  in  the  past  year.  In  the  matter  of  insurance  conditions 
are  much  better.  Of  the  103  negro  heads  of  families  visited, 


RURAL,  L-AND  OWNERSHIP  85 

72  belong  to  some  kind  of  a  lodge  which  pays  from  $1.50 
to  $5.00  per  week  in  case  of  sickness  and  funeral  expenses  in 
case  of  death.  In  addition  to  these  29  other  negroes,  who  are  not 
heads  of  families,  carry  such  insurance.  "The  Southern  Aid" 
with  dues  of  25  cents  per  week  pays  $5  per  week  in  case  of  sick 
ness  and  $70  at  death;  "St.  Lukes,"  a  mutual  Society  with  dues 
of  25  cents  per  month  pays  from  $1.50  to  $2  per  week  in  case  of 
sickness  and  $100  at  death.  A  great  majority  of  the  negroes 
interviewed  belonged  to  one  of  these  organizations,  and  others 
represented  were  "The  Odd  Fellows"  with  its  widows  and  or 
phans  insurance,  "The  Central  Relief,"  "The  Providential  Relief 
Association,"  "The  Richmond  Beneficial,"  etc.  The  rates  in  all 
of  these  societies  are,  as  insurance,  excessive,  but  they  serve  as 
social  organizations  as  well,  and  their  protection,  if  not  altogether 
certain  and  very  expensive,  is  much  better  than  nothing.  As 
for  fire  insurance  it  was  found  that  most  of  the  negroes  whose 
houses  were  of  any  value  had  them  insured ;  few  of  those  in  log 
or  inferior  frame  houses  did. 

In  the  country  it  is  under  the  third  heading  where  we  should 
expect  to  find  the  greatest  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  thrift. 
Here,  indeed,  there  is  the  opportunity  and  those  negroes  who 
make  the  most  of  it  do  well  while  those  who  do  not  live  poorly 
and  accumulate  nothing.  Among  the  land  owners  interviewed 
there  were  only  three  without  some  kind  of  a  garden  and  only 
eleven  without  a  few  chickens.  But  the  gardens  range  all  the 
way  from  a  poorly  scratched  patch  of  corn  and  onions  to  those 
which  are  large  and  well  cultivated  and  raise  all  kinds  of  vegeta 
bles.  L.  M.,  for  instance,  who  is  not  a  regular  farmer  but  an 
outside  laborer  as  well,  canned  100  cans  of  peas,  corn,  snaps,  and 
tomatoes  from  his  own  garden  for  winter  use.  For  all  of  the 
families  except  those  of  the  most  improvident  class  the  number 
of  chickens  ranges  from  fifteen  to  thirty  and  a  few  of  the  farm 
ers  have  a  hundred  or  more.  If  there  is  anyone  thing  which 
might  be  taken  as  an  index  to  the  thrift  of  the  negroes  in  this 
section,  it  is,  perhaps,  whether  or  not  they  keep  any  hogs.  Of 
those  interviewed  36  did  not  and  67  did ;  and  of  those  interviewed 
just  about  two  thirds  showed  some  evidence  of  a  conscious  ef 
fort  to  improve  their  -conditions,  while  the  balance  seemed  con- 


86  PHEI.PS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

tent  to  live  in  more  or  less  squalor  and  work  only  when  neces 
sary. 

The  occupations  which  employ  the  rural  negroes  of  Albemarle 
County  have  been  outlined  and,  in  the  survey  of  family  econom 
ics,  it  has  been  shown  that  for  the  industrious  the  incomes  are 
sufficient  to  form  the  "nest  egg"  for  economic  independence. 
When  such  answers  as  "God  Almighty  knows,"  "all  we  can  get," 
and  the  like  are  given  to  the  questions  asked  relative  to  the  differ 
ent  elements  in  the  family  expenditures,  it  is  a  mistake  to  place 
too  much  emphasis  on  the  results  ascertained. 

But  this  much  is  obvious :  ( 1 )  In  the  county  there  are  fewer 
abnormalities  in  the  negro's  budget  than  in  the  city,  and:  (2) 
Even  in  the  country,  where  a  larger  amount  goes  for  necessities 
and  less  for  incidentals,  the  standard  of  living  is  not  sufficiently 
high  to  make  all  of  the  negroes  work  all  of  the  time.  Jackson 
Davis,  the  Supervisor  of  Rural  Education  in  Virginia,  says  that 
"if  only  one  third  of  their  land  (negroes')  could  be  brought  to 
its  proper  degree  of  production  it  ought  to  add  to  the  wealth  of 
the  state  by  something  like  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent."  15  What 
ever  the  amounts,  the  principle  that  inefficient  producers  are  a 
drain  on  the  wealth  of  the  people  as  a  whole  remains  the  same. 
The  problem,  therefore,  is  to  so  diversify  the  wants  of  the  negro 
producer  that  he  will  put  forth  his  best  efforts  to  attain  them. 
But  as  a  race  the  negroes  are  inferior  in  efficiency  and  they  will 
always  have  to  stand  away  from  the  effects  of  white  competition. 
It  is  in  the  country,  on  the  small  farms  and  in  the  semi-skilled 
trades,  where  the  negroes,  better  educated  and  with  better  indus 
trial  training,  must  try  to  make  their  place.  Here  the  effect  of 
white  competition  is  reduced  to  a  minimum  and  the  absence  of 
temptation  curbs  many  of  their  weaknesses. 

15.  In  an  address  delivered  at  the  Rural  Life  Conference  at  the 
University  of  Virginia,  1911. 


CHAPTER   VI. 
SOCIAL  CONDITIONS. 

The  sanitary  conditions  in  the  negro  communities  in  the 
county,  are,  as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  in  the  rural  districts,  far 
better  than  in  the  towns  and  cities.  There  is,  of  course,  a  great 
diversity  in  the  cleanliness  and  orderliness  of  the  places.  The 
premises  of  those  negro  owners  of  the  upper  group  are  usually 
tidy  and  well  kept,  while  those  of  the  lower  group  are  apt  to 
be  dirty  and  the  fences  and  outhouses  in  poor  repair. 

Of  the  103  homes  visited,  65  were  either  painted  or  white 
washed  and  32  were  unpainted.  36  of  the  former  group  were 
well  painted  and  the  remainder  were  whitewashed.  Notice  was 
also  taken  of  the  condition  of  the  outhouses  and  fences,  and  the 
fences  were  arbitrarily  classed  as  in  "good  condition/'  "fair  con 
dition,"  "poor  condition,  and  "no  fences."  There  were  of  the 
first  group  60;  13  were  classed  as  fair,  and  on  27  of  the  places 
there  were  either  no  fences  or  they  were  in  a  very  "run-down" 
condition.  Throughout  the  observations  this  approximate  ratio 
of  two  families  who  show  some  degree  of  thrift  to  one  that 
is  totally  shiftless  seems  to  hold  good. 

The  houses  occupied  by  the  families  in  the  rural  districts  of 
Albemarle  County  which  were  visited  contain  from  two  to  ten 
rooms,  the  greater  number  being  of  from  three  to  five  rooms. 
There  is  an  average  number  of  occupants  per  room  of  1.1  per 
sons,  while  in  Sandy  Springs  the  same  average  is  1.26  and  in 
Athens  it  is  1.32.1  The  following  table  shows  the  distribution 
of  the  families  in  the  houses : 

Many  of  the  two  and  three  room  houses  are  log  built,  but 
not  a  majority  of  them.  A  majority  of  the  three  and  four  room 
houses  are  two  story  frame  buildings  with  one  room  on  each 
floor  and  a  shed  kitchen.  Such  houses  are,  indeed,  typical  of 
the  negroes — they  insist  on  having  two  stories  if  there  is  only 

1.  Thorn,   91   and   Woofter,    17. 

87 


88  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

TABLE  XXII:  FAMILIES  BY  SIZE  OF  FAMILY  AND  NUM 
BER  OF  ROOMS  TO  A  HOUSE  AMONG  THE  103 
FAMILIES  VISITED  IN  THE  RIVANNA 
DISTRICT. 

Families  according  to  houses  of 


Two 

Not 

Size    of    fam. 

rooms 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7     8     9     10 

rep't  Total 

1    member    , 

2 

2 

2   members    

4 

5 

3 

1 

2 

121 

2          21 

3   members    

3 

4 

2 

4 

2 

1 

16 

4   members    

6 

7 

1 

14 

5    members    , 

3 

1 

3 

5 

1 

1     2 

16 

6   members    

1 

1 

3 

1 

3 

9 

7   members    

1 

1 

1 

3 

1      1 

8 

8   members    

1 

2 

1 

1 

1 

6 

9   members    

1 

1 

2 

1 

1 

6 

10   members    

2 

1 

3 

12   members    

1 

1 

13   members    

1 

1 

Total   families    

13 

21 

27 

15 

13 

461        1 

2       103 

Total    rooms    

26 

63 

108 

75 

78 

28  48     9     10 

445* 

one  room  above.  Most  of  the  houses  above  three  rooms  are 
fairly  good  frame  buildings  usually  painted  or  whitewashed  and 
in  good  repair.  The  rooms,  in  the  best  of  the  houses,  are  of 
fair  size,  well  ventilated,  and  fairly  well  furnished.  Careful  no 
tice  was  taken  of  the  furnishings  which,  in  point  of  neatness 
and  repair,  were  found  to  correspond  very  closely  to  the  fences, 
outhouses,  and  exterior  of  the  houses.  We  would  naturally  ex 
pect  to  find  these  conditions  better  among  home  owning  country 
negroes  than  among  city  renters  and,  as  far  as  can  be  judged 
from  observation,  they  are  materially  better.  That  the  houses 
are  less  crowded  is  shown  by  comparing  the  figures  for  Athens : 
there  two  and  three  room  houses  are  the  most  usual  while  in 
Albemarle  County  three  and  four  room  houses  prevail.  In 
Athens  93%  of  the  families  live  in  houses  of  fewer  than  five 
rooms  while  among  those  families  in  Albemarle  County  visited 
the  same  percentage  was  73.  No  case  was  found  where  two 

*Not  including  rooms  occupied  by  2  families  not  reported. 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  89 

distinct  families  occupied  one  house  though  in  several  instances 
there  was  one  or  more  outside  member. 

Again,  as  would  be  expected  in  the  country,  the  conditions  of 
sanitation  are  far  better  than  are  shown  by  observation  in  Char- 
lottesville.  As  a  rule  the  houses  in  the  country  are  fairly  clean 
and  not  more  than  ten  per  cent,  of  them  appear  to  be  unclean 
to  the  point  of  endangering  health.  The  ventilation  is  always 
good  and,  since  the  negro  communities  are  usually  on  ridges 
rather  than  in  the  bottoms,  the  drainage  is  good.  Particular 
notice  was  taken  of  the  privies  which  were  found,  in  most  cases, 
to  be  built  at  a  reasonably  safe  distance  from  the  house  and 
water  supply  and  in  sanitary  condition.  In  the  103  homes  visited 
there  had  not  been  a  single  case  of  typhoid  fever  for  over  two 
years  and,  as  far  as  the  memory  of  the  informants  can  be 
trusted,  there  had  only  been  six  deaths  from  it  in  the  present 
families.  The  water  supply  is  usually  either  from  wells  or 
springs  on  the  premises  or  those  of  neighbors.  Judging  from 
the  typhoid  record  the  supply  is  evidently  free  from  pollution.2 

The  Negro  Organization  Society  has  undertaken,  and  is  carry 
ing  through,  an  extensive  program  for  the  betterment  of  health 
conditions  among  the  negroes  throughout  the  state.  At  the 
request  of  this  society  the  Department  of  Health  of  Virginia 
annually  issues  a  handbook  of  health  especially  adapted  for  use 
among  the  colored  people  and  distributes  it  among  them  gratis. 
It  contains  instructions  of  how  to  keep  the  springs  and  wells 
clean,  how  to  construct  sanitary  privies,  instructions  in  venti 
lation,  personal  cleanliness,  etc.  The  society  has  also  under 
taken  the  organization  of  a  league  among  the  negroes,  the  mem 
bers  of  which  will  pledge  themselves  to  build  a  sanitary  privy, 
to  provide  adequate  fresh  air,  to  keep  the  body  clean,  and  to 
protect  the  water  supply.  The  effect  of  these  movements  will 
undoubtedly  be  beneficial  to  the  negroes  in  both  town  and  coun 
try. 

The  moral  and  sanitary  conditions  in  the  homes  are,  normally, 

2.  A  careful  investigation  of  this  is  being  made  in  conjunction  with 
the  school  census.  The  results  will  be  published  with  those  of  the 
sociological  survey  now  being  undertaken  by  the  public  institutions 
of  the  county  and  city. 


90  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

in  large  measure  determined  by  the  character  of  the  women 
who,  under  present  social  conditions,  are  the  home-makers.  Im 
morality  or  much  outside  work  on  the  part  of  the  housewives 
would  naturally  be  expected  to  entail  evil  consequences.  As 
has  been  seen  only  six  housewives  work  out  regularly  and  the 
remainder  can,  if  they  so  desire,  give  most  of  their  time  to  mak 
ing  their  houses  homes.  Conjugal  conditions  also  affect  the 
home  environment  and  it  is  important  to  notice  the  extent  of 
widowhood,  separation,  and  illegitimacy.  The  following  con 
ditions  were  found  among  those  families  visited:  80,  or  77.7% 
married  or  living  together  as  man  and  wife;  15  or  14.6%  of 
the  heads  of  families  either  widows  or  widowers;  5  or  4.8% 
separated;  and  there  were  3  or  2.9%  women  unmarried  with 
children.  Compared  with  similar  statistics  for  other  localities 
the  percentage  of  illegitimacy  is  low  in  the  Rivanna  District, 
and  the  percentage  of  men  and  women  living  together  as  man 
and  wife  is  high.  There  are  eleven  widows  and  four  widowers 
not  married  again.  Now,  where  illegitimacy  and  separation  are 
low  and  where  few  of  the  women  have  to  give  all  of  their  time 
to  breadwinning,  we  should  expect  to  find  home  conditions  pro 
portionately  better.  Add  to  this  the  abundance  of  fresh  air 
and  room  afforded  in  the  country  and  it  is  apparent  that,  while 
conditions  are  much  better  here  than  in  the  towns,  there  is  yet 
room  for  much  improvement.  Industry  and  frugality  on  the 
part  of  the  women  who  can  devote  their  time  to  the  home  should 
bring  these  results  in  direct  proportion  as  they  are  practiced. 
These,  however,  are  characteristics  biologically  lacking  in  the 
negroes  and  must,  if  the  best  results  are  to  be  expected,  be  sup 
plied  by  domestic  training  in  the  schools. 

Illiteracy  among  the  negroes,  as  is  shown  by  the  figures  for 
the  different  ages,  is  decreasing  with  remarkable  rapidity,  but 
there  are  still  a  very  large  number  unable  to  read  and  write. 
The  following  table  shows  the  conditions  of  illiteracy  in  Albe- 
marle  County,  exclusive  of  Charlottesville,  in  1910 :3 


3.  This   table  was   prepared   especially  by  the   Census    Bureau   and 
is  not  to  be  found  in  any  printed  report. 


RURAL   LAND  OWNERSHIP  91 

TABLE  XXIII:  AGE  AND  LITERACY  OF  NEGROES  FOR  AL- 
BEMARLE  COUNTY. 


Males 

Females 

Total 

% 

10  to  20  years 

L/itera.te 

...        1  048 

1  226 

2  972 

85  6 

Illiterate         .            

237 

147 

384 

14.4 

21  years  and  over 

Literate     

1,180 

1,335 

2,515 

57.1 

Illiterate 

893 

1  002 

1  895 

42  9 

Total 

Literate 

0  90Q 

2  561 

4  787 

67  7 

Illiterate 

1  130 

1  149 

2  279 

32  3 

The  last  tabulated  statistics  in  the  office  of  the  Division  Su 
perintendent  of  Schools  4  shows  a  total  school  population  in  Al- 
bemarle  County  of  10,211,  of  whom  6,573  are  white  and  3,638 
are  negroes.  The  total  number  of  whites  enrolled  is  4,120  or 
62%  and  the  total  number  of  negro  children  enrolled  is  1,860 
or  51%.  Both  of  these  percentages,  however,  are  too  low  be 
cause  some  850  children  from  the  county  attend  school  in  Char- 
lottesville.  Few  negro  children  above  the  age  of  fifteen  attend, 
which  in  part  accounts  for  their  low  percentage  of  enrollment. 
The  absence  of  school  facilities  for  children  of  this  age  was, 
by  the  way,  the  occasion  of  critical  comments  from  several  of 
the  negroes  interviewed.  The  percentage  of  daily  attendance 
throughout  the  session  is  57.4%  for  the  whites  and  70.9%  for 
the  negroes,  the  advantage  in  favor  of  the  negroes  being  ex 
plained  by  the  fact  that  they  live  in  communities,  which  makes 
school  attendance  in  bad  weather  comparatively  easy,  while  many 
of  the  whites  live  at  greater  distances  from  the  schools,  and 
by  the  fact  that  more  white  children  are  taken  out  of  schooi 
in  the  spring  to  work  on  the  farms.  For  the  4,120  white  chil 
dren  72  schools  are  open  and  for  the  1,860  negroes  there  are 
43  schools.  For  the  whites  there  is  one  teacher  for  every  23 
pupils  and  one  to  every  35  negro  pupils. 

4.  For  this  and  the   succeeding  information   I   am   indebted  to   Mr. 
H.  M.  McMannaway,  Division   Supt.  of  Schools. 


92  PHEIvPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

The  average  salary  paid  white  teachers  is  $43.65  and  the  av 
erage  salary  paid  the  negro  teachers  is  $26.87.  The  minimum 
salary  paid  to  negro  teachers  is  $20  per  month  which  is  paid 
to  the  emergency  teachers.  There  are  among  the  53  negro  teach 
ers  in  the  county  25  who  have  attended  Hampton,  Petersburg, 
Lynchburg,  or  the  Hartshorne  School  in  Richmond  and  most 
of  these  are  fairly  well  trained.  The  others  have  been  trained 
in  the  local  schools,  and,  as  a  whole,  are  not  capable  instructors. 
The  length  of  the  negro  session  is  about  the  same  as  that 
for  the  whites  in  the  lower  grades  and,  throughout  the  county, 
averages  about  6.2  months.  Many  of  the  schools  in  the  county, 
both  white  and  negro,  are  helped  by  private  subscription  to  con 
tinue  for  a  longer  session.  The  county  agrees  to  furnish  the 
balance  for  an  extra  month  to  each  community  which  will  raise 
one-half  of  the  necessary  expenses.  As  a  result  of  this  system 
there  was,  last  year,  a  26%  increase  in  the  number  of  days  ac 
tually  taught. 

Next  session  three  of  the  negro  schools  will  go  through  the 
eighth  grade,  seven  through  the  seventh  grade,  and  thirty-two 
through  the  fifth,  while  one  will  carry  two  years  of  high  school 
work  and  will  be  used  as  a  training  school  for  teachers  and  a 
state  certificate  will  be  issued.  This  school  will  be  operated 
with  the  assistance  of  the  John  F.  Slater  Fund,  which  will  as* 
sist  several  such  schools  next  session  according  to  the  following 
conditions  recently  announced  by  its  director:  "For  the  next 
session  we  propose  to  aid  in  about  thirty,  provided  the  reasonable 
conditions  are  fulfilled.  These  conditions  *  *  *  are  that 
the  school  property  shall  belong  to  the  state  or  county,  thus  fix 
ing  the  school  as  a  part  of  the  public  school  system;  second, 
that  there  shall  be  an  appropriation  of  at  least  $750  from  the 
public  funds  for  maintenance;  third,  that  the  teaching  shall  be 
carried  strictly  and  honestly  through  the  eighth  grade,  including 
industrial  work,  and  in  the  last  year  some  training,  however 
elementary,  for  the  work  of  teaching.  Under  these  conditions 
the  Slater  Fund  has  agreed  to  appropriate  $500  for  mainte 
nance,  and  in  the  first  year,  where  new  buildings  or  repairs  may 
be  necessary,  to  aid  in  supplying  these  in  cooperation  with 


RURAL,  LAND  OWNERSHIP  93 

amounts  raised  from  other  sources."  5 

One  object  of  the  questionaire  was  to  ascertain  to  what  ex 
tent  old  negroes  who  never  went  to  school  have  learned  how  to 
read,  and  to  what  extent  those  who  have  been  to  school  con 
tinue  to  read.  To  the  question  "can  you  read,"  the  answer  "a 
little"  was  given  both  by  old  negroes  who  had  never  been  to 
school  and  by  a  few  who  had  been  to  school.  Several  were 
found  who  could  read,  but  who  could  not  write,  and  one  man 
said  that  he  could  read  printing  but  not  writing.  These  are 
the  negroes  who  have  acquired  it  without  ever  having  gone  to 
school. 

A  question  was  asked  relative  to  whether  or  not  a  newspaper 
or  magazine  was  regularly  received  in  the  home.  It  was  found 
that  at  least  one  paper  went  regularly  into  34  homes,  but  in  only 
five  cases  was  it  a  farm  journal.  In  17  of  the  homes  visited, 
The  Charlottesville  Messenger,  a  newspaper  published  by  a 
negro  in  Charlottesville,  was  read,  and  in  12  others  the  papers 
subscribed  to  were:  The  Charlottesville  Progress,  The  Toledo 
Blade,  The  New  York  World,  The  Kansas  City  Star,  The  I Wash 
ington  Post,  etc. 

Twenty-eight  of  the  negro  men  answered  that  they  voted,  and 
all  but  one  gave  their  politics  as  Republican.  The  greatest  possi 
ble  ignorance  was  shown  in  some  of  the  discussions  that  the 
literate  landowners  volunteered  in  answer  to  this  question.  One 
declared  that  no  colored  people  were  allowed  to  vote  and  that 
"they  used  to  be  but  not  now."  In  another  home,  where  the 
questions  were  answered  by  a  woman  who  was  above  the  av 
erage  in  intelligence,  the  whole  family  except  one  daughter 
seemed  firmly  convinced  that  the  negroes  were  disfranchised, 
and  when  the  little  girl  said  that  so  and  so  voted,  her  mother 
answered  that  "he  must  be  a  democrat."  In  the  matter  of  party 
affiliation  a  still  greater  ignorance  is  shown ;  many  of  them  ac 
tually  seem  to  think  that  the  Democrats  wish  to  re-enslave  them 
and  that  the  Republicans  are  God-sent  saviors  to  the  race. 

This  is,  of  course,  a  heritage  of  the  Reconstruction  Period, 


5.  Report  of  Director  J.  H.  Dillard,  1915. 


94  PHELPS-STOKKS   FELLOWSHIP   PAPERS 

when  the  negroes  were  taught  by  the  unscrupulous  adventurers 
from  the  North  and  the  equally  unscrupulous  Southerners  who 
tried  to  use  the  negro  vote  for  their  own  ends,  that  their  inter 
ests  were  inherently  opposed  to  those  of  the  whites,  and  the 
whites,  to  maintain  their  supremacy,  were  forced  to  unite  in 
one  race  party  regardless  of  political  belief.  This  caused  a  gulf, 
politically  at  least,  between  the  better  class  of  Southern  whites 
and  the  negroes  which  has  never  been  entirely  healed,  and  which, 
according  to  Thomas  Nelson  Page,6  is  the  greatest  misfortune 
that  has  ever  befallen  the  negro  race  in  America,  not  excepting 
its  ravishment  from  its  native  land.  To  the  whites,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  meant  practical  disfranchisement  because  party  names 
were  made  synonyms  for  color,  and  they  were  no  longer  able 
to  divide  on  grounds  of  political  belief  and  economic  interests. 
With  the  partial  disfranchisement  of  the  negroes  this  evil  has 
been  lessened  and  there  has  of  recent  years  developed  a  very  re 
spectable  opposition  party.  But  there  can  never  be  two  strong 
parties,  which  are  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  government, 
until  the  negroes  are  disillusioned  and  divide  along  the  same 
economic  lines  as  the  whites  with  the  same  economic  interests. 
This  end  will  come  nearer  to  realization  with  the  industrial  ad 
vancement  of  the  negroes,  because  where  there  is  a  vital  self- 
interest  economic  considerations  will  bring  about  a  political  di 
vision. 

The  only  provision  for  the  industrial  training  of  the  rural 
negroes  of  Albemarle  County  is  a  school  supervisor  of  industrial 
work.  She  receives  a  salary  of  $495  for  eleven  months  service 
which  is  provided  jointly  by  the  Jeannes  Fund,  the  General 
Board  of  Education,  and  the  County  Board  of  Education.  While 
this  is,  of  course,  very  inadequate,  it  at  least  shows  that  the  ten 
dency  is  toward  more  practical  education  for  the  negroes,  and 
the  results  of  her  work  are  very  noticeable.  She  visits  the  va 
rious  negro  schools  of  the  county,  gives  lessons  in  some  indus 
try,  plans  for  the  regular  teacher  to  give  succeeding  lessons, 
organizes  movements  to  raise  money  for  longer  terms  and  better 


6.  "The  Negro:  The  Southerners'   Problem." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  95 

equipment,  and  in  general  looks  after  the  advancement  of  prac 
tical  education  in  the  county. 

The  supervising  industrial  teacher  last  year  made  130  visits 
to  22  schools  in  the  county  and  raised  $1,127  among  the  negroes 
for  buildings,  school  extension,  and  pupils'  prizes.  In  these 
visits  she  gave  lessons  in  gardening,  cooking,  sewing  and  quilt 
ing,  organized  canning  clubs,  gave  instructions  in  health  and  san 
itation,  etc.  In  the  summer  her  time  is  occupied  in  visiting  the 
negro  homes  in  the  county,  where  the  same  type  of  instruction 
in  domestic  economy  and  gardening  is  given. 

After  all  else  is  said,  the  fact  remains  that  the  negroes,  al 
though  a  decreasing  ratio,  form  a  large  part  of  the  population 
of  Virginia,  and  if  the  agricultural  possibilities  of  the  state  are 
to  be  developed,  this  sort  of  training  must  be  further  extended. 
In  theory,  at  least,  it  is  no  new  idea.  Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo  says :  "Al 
most  100  years  ago  young  Thomas  Jefferson  drew  up  a  scheme 
for  the  education  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  which,  had  it  been 
adopted,  would  have  changed  the  history  of  that  and  of  every 
other  state  and  of  the  nation.  He  proposed  to  emancipate  the 
slaves  and  fit  them  by  industrial  training  for  freedom;  to  es 
tablish  a  free  school  for  every  white  child.  *  *  *  and  to 
crown  all  with  a  university."  But  in  practice  it  is  a  new 
thing  and  it  is  only  in  the  last  few  years  that  the  results  at 
tained  at  Hampton  have  been  recognized  and  the  same  methods 
been  put  into  practice  elsewhere. 

The  agricultural  prosperity  of  Virginia  depends  largely  on  the 
extension  of  this  kind  of  education  which  reaches  the  negroes 
and  makes  them  more  efficient  producers.  "Because  our  educa 
tional  machinery  has  failed  in  the  past,"  says  Davis 7  "to  fit 
the  negroes  for  rural  life,  wherein  lies  his  greatest  opportunity 
for  happiness  and  gain  to  himself  and  state,  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  condemn  negro  education;  but  it  is  an  excellent  rea 
son  why  we  should  change  the  character  of  that  education  in 
order  that  the  negro  may  know  how  to  produce  more,  live  better, 
and  add  to  the  common  wealth  of  the  state." 

7.  Jackson  Davis  in  an  address  delivered  before  the  Rural  Life  Con 
ference  at  the  University  of  Virginia  in  1911. 


96  PHELPS-STOKKS    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

It  is  only  to  the  enthusiast  that  the  negro's  religion  appears  a 
vital  force  in  his  progress.  Although  it  is  urged  by  those  who 
have  studied  the  question  that  it  is  improving  with  great  rapid 
ity,8  the  religion  of  the  negro  is  at  present  one  of  systematized 
emotion  and  lacking  in  ethical  import.  Christianity  is,  indeed, 
too  new  a  thing  with  all  primitive  peoples  to  be  appreciated  be 
yond  its  emotional  side.  Its  emotionalism  resembles  their  native 
religion  and  appeals  to  their  nature,  but  they  have  little  desire 
for  its  ethical  side  and  in  adopting  the  outward  forms  of  Chris 
tianity  this  has  often  been  omitted.  Improved  ethical  standards 
may  be  expected  to  come  with  a  higher  standard  of  living,  be 
cause  the  immoral  disposition  is  produced  in  all  mentally  weak 
people,  not  by  the  absence  of  churches,  but  by  social  and  eco 
nomic  conditions  which  force  them  along  the  lines  of  least  resist 
ance. 

Even  in  its  present  primitive  condition,  however,  the  negro 
church  has  an  important  mission  among  its  people.  The  churches 
and  lodges  furnish  most  of  the  social  life  for  the  negroes  and, 
since  outside  of  these  there  is  practically  no  innocent  recreation 
for  them,  this  is  of  the  greatest  practical  importance.  Since  hu 
man  nature  will  never  tolerate  a  vacuum,  the  natural  craving  for 
recreation  must  be  met,  and  unless  it  is  cleanly  met  it  is  apt  to 
seek  criminal  outlets.  Says  a  wise  observer :  9  "Prohibition  is 
good  as  far  as  it  goes  even  though  in  our  cities  it  does  not  go 
at  all.  But  it  will  never,  by  itself,  do  very  much  more  than  just 
slick  up  life  on  the  outside.  It  is  purely  a  negative  measure,  a 
gigantic  'thou  shalt  not/  '  This  is  equally  applicable  to  every 
form  of  prohibition  and  if  our  statutes  deny  certain  outlets  for 
the  negro's  play  instinct  society  must  afford  others  or  else  the 
statutes,  unsupported  by  public  sentiment,  will  become,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  nul  and  void.  In  so  far,  then,  as  the  churches, 
by  their  long  and  emotional  Sunday  "sessions"  and  their  occa 
sional  "sociables"  afford  an  outlet  for  the  instinct  which  other 
wise  might  go  into  immoral  channels,  they  are  an  agency  for  the 
betterment  of  the  race.  The  lodges  have  a  similar  function. 


8.  See  Weatherford,  "Negro  Life  in  the   South." 

9.  L.   H.   Hammond  in  "In  Black  and  White." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  97 

One  appeals  to  the  negro's  nature  by  its  emotionalism  and  one 
by  its  ritualism  and  both,  therefore,  can  afford  him  a  pleasing 
and  innocent  form  of  recreation. 

Except  for  those  who  were  too  young  and  nine  more,  every 
one  of  the  487  negroes  represented  in  the  families  visited  claimed 
membership  in  one  of  the  Baptist  Churches  of  the  county.  One 
who  was  not  a  member  had  been  expelled  for  "getting  drunk" 
and  two  more  did  not  "care  for  preaching."  These  were,  in 
deed,  singular  exceptions  to  the  rule,  because  most  of  the  ne 
groes  interviewed  said  that  they  never  missed  a  "preaching"  or 
a  "meeting."  And  for  all  of  these  negroes  the  church  affords  a 
community  center  where  the  better  of  them  can  exchange  ideas 
which  may  be  of  practical  importance. 

Because  the  church  has  such  a  hold  on  the  people  there  are 
many  practical  possibilities  in  it.  The  negro  preacher  is  a  much 
respected  and  revered  person  among  his  people,  and  with  an  in 
telligent  and  industrious  preacher  this  reverence  could  be  put  to 
good  use.  There  are  in  the  state  a  few  negro  preachers  who 
have  been  trained  at  such  institutions  as  Hampton,  and  their 
ministry  is  of  much  greater  value  to  their  people  than  that  of 
those  who  have  specialized  on  a  so-called  theology.  As  commu 
nity  leaders  they  can  exert  a  great  influence  over  their  followers 
in  habits  of  frugality,  industry,  health,  and  morality.  With  more 
negro  preachers  who  are  well  trained  in  these  fundamentals  the 
church  can,  as  a  social,  intellectual,  and  economic  center,  exer 
cise  a  great  influence. 


CHAPTER   VII. 
REFLECTIONS  AND  CONCLUSIONS^ 

Booker  T.  Washington,  the  negro  whose  wise  race  leadership, 
will  make  him  long  remembered  not  only  as  a  valued  servant  to 
his  race  in  America  but  to  the  entire  South,  declared  that  the 
negro  was  not  given  freedom  by  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
but  that  independence  would  come  only  by  self  earned  economic 
emancipation.  Stability,  thrift,  industry  and  purpose,  where 
competition  is  free,  may  be  said  to  constitute  the  prerequisites  of 
economic  independence.  This  much  granted  it  follows  that  the 
environment  which  will  best  facilitate  the  development  of  these 
traits  in  a  people  in  which  they  are  more  or  less  organically  lack 
ing  but  which  is  still  in  the  plastic  stage  of  social  growth  is  the 
one  to  be  desired.  Recognized  authorities,  who  base  their  opin 
ion  on  careful  study,  are  convinced  that  rural  occupations 
offer  the  best  opportunity  for  the  development  of  these  qualities, 
and  it  is  the  lesson  of  history  that  the  roots  of  civilization  must 
be  ''struck  deep  into  the  soil"  before  the  processes  of  production 
can  be  mastered  or  before  the  most  efficient  social  group  can 
develop.  Of  no  less  importance  are  the  principles  of  consump 
tion — the  ability  to  get  the  maximum  of  benefit  from  the  pro 
ducts  of  labor — and  these  were  likewise  first  learned  in  the  culti 
vation  of  the  soil. 

"We  are  living  in  a  country  where,"  says  Washington,  "if  we 
are  to  succeed  at  all,  we  are  going  to  do  so  largely  by  what  we 
raise  out  of  the  soil.  *  *  *  Plainly,  then,  the  best  thing,  the 
logical  thing,  is  to  turn  the  larger  part  of  our  strength  in  a  di 
rection  that  will  make  the  negro  among  the  most  skilled  agricul 
tural  people  in  the  world.  *  *  *  This  policy  would  tend  to  keep 
the  negro  in  the  country  and  smaller  towns,  where  he  succeeds 
best,  and  stop  the  influx  to  the  cities,  where  he  does  not  succeed 

1.  The  substance  of  this  chapter  appeared  in  an  article  by  the 
writer  in  the  May,  1915,  "Southern  Workman." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  99 

so  well."  2  Such  quotations  as  this  express  the  opinions  of  the 
most  capable  negro  leaders  and  most  thoughtful  writers  and  He 
at  the  basis  of  the  methods  being  pursued  at  Tuskegee,  Hamp 
ton,  and  the  other  lesser  schools.  Upon  examination  the  rea 
sons  for  this  opinion  seem  to  fall  under  four  principal  heads. 

In  the  first  place  there  is  the  question  of  health.  At  the  pres 
ent  time  when  the  new  science  of  eugenics  is  being  so  widely 
discussed  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  principles  of  euthenics 
— or  the  improvement  of  the  environment — are  still  necessary 
supplements  to  race  regeneration.  Without  healthy  bodies  the 
people  cannot  develop  to  their  greatest  potentialities,  and  with 
out  healthy  bodies  the  vitality  of  the  generations  to  come  may 
be  materially  weakened.  And  the  environment — the  food,  the 
housing,  the  sanitary  conditions — largely  determines  the  condi 
tion  of  the  body. 

Under  present  urban  conditions,  where  the  struggle  for  ex 
istence  is  severest,  the  challenge  is  great  to  both  the  white  and 
black  races ;  but  it  is  greatest  to  the  negro,  whose  power  of  re 
sistance  has  been  determined  by  natural  selection  acting  in  a 
different  climate  and  under  different  conditions.  In  the  case  of 
tuberculosis,  for  instance,  there  has  been  a  selection  against  the 
susceptibility  to  the  disease  in  the  white  race  for  thousands  of 
years,  but  it  is  new  to  the  negroes  and  consequently  works  much 
greater  havoc.  In  Washington,  D.  C.  the  death  rate  of  negro 
infants  from  this  disease  is  nearly  four  and  a  half  times  as 
great  as  that  for  the  whites,  and  in  Virginia  there  are  221  negroes 
who  die  from  the  disease  to  every  100  whites.  The  same  is 
true  of  other  diseases  which  are  new  to  the  negroes.  In  Virginia 
negro  mortality  from  lockjaw  is  over  four  times  as  great  as 
the  white,  from  syphilis,  over  three  times  as  great,  and  from 
dysentery,  nearly  three  times  as  great.  All  of  these  diseases — 
and  the  others  responsible  for  the  sixty  per  cent,  excess  of  negro 
mortality — are  peculiarly  prevalent  in  the  cities.3  The  negro  in 


2.  "The  Future  of  the  American   Negro." 

3.  Dr.   Williams,  state   health  commissioner,   in  his  report  to   Gov 
ernor  Stuart,  says:     "The  tuberculosis  rate  is  lowest  among  the  rural 
white    population,    next   lowest    among   the   urban    white    population, 


100  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

the  city  is  exposed  to  them  because  economic  conditions  force 
him  to  live  largely  in  the  congested  districts,  and  they  are  espe 
cially  hazardous  to  him  because  he  has  not  evolved  the  same  re 
sistance  by  long  contact  and  selection  against  them.  Further 
more,  there  are  the  powerful  degenerating  forces  of  alcohol, 
drugs,  and  vice  to  which  the  negro  is  more  susceptible  in  the 
cities.  In  short,  racial  regeneration  along  euthenic  lines  for  the 
negro  is  a  much  simpler  problem  in  the  country  than  in  the  towns 
and  cities;  in  the  country  better  health  will  permit  the  develop 
ment  of  the  greatest  potentialities. 

The  negro's  problem  is  partly  biologic:  Its  solution  consists  in 
bringing  about  the  proper  adjustment  between  environment  and 
racial  inheritance. 

Secondly,  it  may  be  stated  that  in  the  country  house  tends 
more  rapidly  to  become  home,  and  in  proportion  as  this  is  true 
there  is  greater  social  development.  Civilization  begins  with 
the  sense  of  possession,  and  possession  finds  one  of  its  most  per 
fect  expressions  in  the  ownership  of  the  home.  In  the  cities  this 
is  impossible  for  most  negroes — as  indeed  it  is  for  the  whites ;  in 
the  country  it  is  a  necessary  correlative  of  farm  ownership.  Ar 
thur  Young  has  said  that  a  man  will  make  a  garden  spot  of  a 
rock  in  mid-ocean  to  which  he  owns  title,  but  that  without  this 
sense  of  proprietorship  most  of  his  productive  labor  will  be 
wasted.  There  is  much  wisdom  in  this  statement.  Ownership 
gives  the  people  pride,  thrift,  and  industry ;  with  pride  the  house 
takes  on  the  little  niceties  that  make  it  a  home,  with  thrift  small 
savings  and  economies  grow  to  larger  beginnings,  and  industry 
leads  to  increased  production. 

The  development  of  the  race  as  a  social  group,  furthermore, 
requires  that  a  certain  responsibility  to  fellow-man  be  developed. 
By  giving  the  landlord  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  society  and 
government  this  moral  quality  follows  directly  from  proprietor 
ship,  because  where  there  is  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  society 
there  is  social  responsibility.  Until  this  quality  is  developed  in 


with  the  rural  negroes  suffering  more  than  the  urban  whites  and 
the  city  negroes  dying  at  a  \rate  twice  as  great  as  that  of  the  rural  whites, 
and  almost  twice  as  great  as  that  of  the  urban  whites." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  101 

the  race  their  religion  will  remain  a  system  of  sensationalism 
without  morals ;  their  schools  can  never  become  mediums  for 
real  development ;  and  there  can  be  no  basis  for  the  demand  for 
a  participation  in  the  social  control.  According  to  the  early  Sax 
ons  the  land  was  the  man  and  by  this  they  meant  that  the  man 
could  never  be  a  responsible  unit  in  the  group  unless  he  had  the 
conservatism  engendered  by  ownership.  The  shiftlessness  of  the 
nomad  tenants  in  the  Lower  South  offers  a  negative  illustration 
of  this  principle ;  the  thrifty  and  law-abiding  small  farmers  all  over 
the  South  show  the  extent  to  which  personal  and  social  efficiency 
can  be  bred  by  the  pride  of  ownership. 

The  negro's  problem  is  largely  social:  This  consists  in  de 
veloping  the  qualities  which  will  make  him  responsible  to  him 
self  and  to  society. 

Third.  What  may,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  be  termed 
"racial  education,"  receives  a  greater  stimulus  in  the  country. 
This  may,  because  of  the  uniformly  poorer  school  facilities  in  the 
country,  seem  paradoxical,  but  racial  education  does  not  always 
begin  with  books.  Dr.  H.  B.  Frissell  writes  :  4  "We  feel  at  Hamp 
ton  that  the  farm  gives  our  students  the  best  chance  for  improve 
ment  that  they  have,  and  it  is  a  most  excellent  training  school. 
Those  who  come  to  us,  after  helping  their  fathers  and  mothers 
to  cultivate  and  pay  for  a  small  piece  of  land,  have  had  a  valua 
ble  experience  not  otherwise  obtainable."  It  is  these  guiding 
principles  which  must  be  thoroughly  ingrained  into  the  nature  of 
the  race  that  have  been  termed  racial  education,  and  they  are 
necessary  before  there  can  be  any  real  adaption  to  new  condi 
tions.  It  was  the  long  task  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  train  the 
Teutons  in  the  concept  of  authority  that  they  might  be  prepared 
to  receive  the  intellectual  awakening  of  the  Renaissance  without 
overturning  society.  In  a  similar  way  the  laws  of  racial  develop 
ment  must  work  slowly  to  train  the  negroes  in  habits  of  thrift 
and  industry ;  such  racial  education  has  a  better  chance  for  growth 
in  the  country  than  in  the  city. 

This  process  is  along  the  lines  suggested  by  General  Armstrong 
and  developed  at  Hampton  and  Tuskegee;  it  is  the  form  of  train- 

4.  In  a  letter  to  the  writer. 


102  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

ing  which  works  toward  the  education  of  Huxley's  definition — to 
bring  man  "in  harmony  with  nature."  Such  a  point  of  view 
takes  the  stand  that  knowledge  is  useless  unless  purposeful,  and 
declares  that  the  great  end  of  life  is  action  rather  than  knowl 
edge  per  se.  And  yet  this  is  clearly  but  a  beginning;  the  train 
ing,  to  be  effective,  must  continue  for  a  longer  period  than  it 
is  possible  to  give  in  a  few  brief  years.  The  negro,  like  every 
body  else,  will  never  be  possessed  of  anything  he  does  not  achieve 
for  himself;  and  if,  with  this  kind  of  training,  he  builds  where- 
ever  his  capabilities  will  carry  him,  he  will  have  accomplished 
the  end. 

Much  of  the  negro's  problem  is  educational:  The  crux  of  the 
educational  problem  is  to  lay  the  foundations  firm  in  economic 
efficiency. 

The  fourth  and  final  advantage  which  may  be  mentioned  is 
the  economic.  Without  economic  security  the  advantages  ac 
cruing  to  health,  education,  social  conditions,  and  what  not  might 
be  enumerated  indefinitely  but  never  with  any  degree  of  con 
viction.  Professor  Sumner,  says :  5  "We  are  told  that  moral 
forces  alone  can  elevate  any  such  people  again.  But  it  is  plain 
that  a  people  which  has  sunk  below  the  reach  of  the  economic 
forces  of  self-interest  has  certainly  sunk  below  the  reach  of 
moral  forces,  and  that  this  objection  is  superficial  and  short 
sighted.  What  is  true  is  that  economic  forces  always  go  before 
moral  forces.  Men  feel  self-interest  long  before  they  feel  pru 
dence,  self-control,  and  temperance.  They  lose  the  moral  forces 
long  before  they  lose  the  economic  forces.  If  they  can  be  re 
generated  at  all  it  must  be  first  by  distress  appealing  to  self-in 
terest  and  forcing  recourse  to  some  expedient  for  relief.  *  *  * 
The  economic  forces  work  with  moral  forces  and  are  their  hand 
maids,  but  the  economic  forces  are  far  more  primitive,  original, 
and  universal.  The  glib  generalities  in  which  we  sometimes  hear 
people  talk,  as  if  you  could  set  moral  and  economic  forces  sep 
arate  from  and  in  antithesis  to  each  other,  and  discard  the  one 
to  accept  and  work  by  the  other,  gravely  misconstrue  the  reali 
ties  of  the  social  order." 

5.  Sumner,  "The  Challenge  of  Facts  and  Other  Essays"  quoted  in 
Keller,  "Societal  Evolution." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  103 

This  analysis  of  the  forces  of  social  progress  is  peculiarly  apt 
in  relation  to  the  negro,  because  it  is  here,  probably  more  than 
anywhere  else,  that  students  have  missed  the  main  point  and 
have  tried  to  find  the  solution  of  the  race  problem  in  forces  other 
than  the  economic.  But  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  economic  problem- 
lies  at  the  very  heart  of  the  welfare  of  the  group,  and  its  laws 
determine  the  course  of  the  individuals ;  all  other  social  adjust 
ments  follow  as  its  results. 

"Marginal  productivity,"  economists  tell  us,  "is  partly  deter 
mined  by  the  price  which  the  entrepreneur  has  to  pay  for  the 
services  of  the  factors  in  production."  Now,  the  negro  agricul 
tural  entrepreneur  or  farmer  is,  by  being  his  own  laborer,  one  of 
the  factors  in  production,  and  since  the  cost  of  his  standard  of 
living  is  lower  than  that  of  the  white  he  gains  a  differential  ad 
vantage  over  him  up  to  but  not  beyond  the  point  of  diminishing 
efficiency.  Or,  as  Professor  Branson  puts  it,  "Lower  standards 
of  living  prevail  over  and  gradually  displace  higher  standards  of 
living  wherever  the  higher  standards  are  weakened  by  luxurious 
wants  and  undefended  by  increasing  energy  and  skill."  This 
principle  is  less  applicable  in  the  cities  than  in  the  country,  be 
cause  in  the  urban  vocations  the  negro  is  less  capable  of  compet 
ing  with  the  white,  and  because  here  his  extravagance,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  raises  his  standard  of  living  to  near  that  of 
the  whites.  On  the  farms,  however,  it  is  different. 

The  enormous  gains  in  farm  ownership  that  the  negroes  have 
made  in  recent  years  all  over  the  South  not  only  illustrate  this 
principle,  but  show  that  the  negroes  are  unconsciously  taking  ad 
vantage  of  it.  There  is  this,  however,  to  be  noted :  other  peo 
ples,  such  as  the  Italians  and  other  immigrants,  are  gradually 
coming  South,  and  with  their  almost  equally  low  standard  of  liv 
ing  and  greater  economic  efficiency  have  an  advantage  over  the 
negroes.  If  the  negro,  therefore,  is  to  retain  the  economic  ad 
vantage  as  an  agricultural  worker  that  he  now  enjoys,  his  effici 
ency  must  be  maintained  and  increased. 

The  negro's  problem  is  essentially  economic:  It  consists  in 
maintaining,  by  increased  efficiency,  the  advantage  which  he  now 
enjoys  in  the  rural  districts. 


APPENDIX    AND    BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


APPENDIX. 

In  compiling  the  following  tables  of  statistics  for  Virginia  by 
sections  the  counties  of  the  state  were  arbitrarily  divided  into 
three  groups  as  follows : 

TIDEWATER:  Accomac,  Alexandria,  Caroline,  Charles  City, 
Elizabeth  City,  Essex,  Fairfax,  Greenesville,  Gloucester,  Isle  of 
Wight,  James  City,  King  and  Queen,  King  William,  King 
George,  Lancaster,  Mathews,  Middlesex,  Nansemond,  New 
Kent,  Norfolk,  Northampton,  Northumberland,  Stafford,  Rich 
mond,  Prince  William,  Prince  George,  Princess  Anne,  South 
ampton,  Surrey,  Sussex,  Warwick,  Westmoreland,  and  York. 

PIEDMONT  :  Albemarle,  Amelia,  Amherst,  Appomattox,  Bed 
ford,  Brunswick,  Buckingham,  Campbell,  Charlotte,  Chesterfield, 
Culpeper,  Cumberland,  Dinwiddie,  Fluvanna,  Franklin,  Goochland, 
Halifax,  Hanover,  Greene,  Henrico,  Fauquier,  Henry,  Louisa, 
Lunenburg,  Madison,  Mecklenburg,  Nelson,  Nottoway,  Orange, 
Patrick,  Pittsylvania,  Powhatan,  Prince  Edward,  Rappahannock, 
and  Spottsylvania. 

VALLEY  AND  SOUTHWEST:  Alleghany,  Augusta,  Bath,  Bland, 
Botetourt,  Buchanan,  Carrol,  Clark,  Craig,  Floyd,  Frederick, 
Giles,  Grayson,  Highland,  Lee,  Loudoun,  Montgomery,  Page, 
Pulaski,  Roanoke,  Dickinson,  Rockbridge,  Rockingham,  Russell, 
Scott,  Shenandoah,  Smythe,  Tazewell,  Warren,  'Washington, 
Wise,  and  Wythe. 

While  it  is  impossible  to  put  all  of  the  counties  in  Virginia 
into  one  of  these  three  groups  without  involving  a  certain  amount 
of  inaccuracy,  it  has  been  done  here  in  order  to  make  the  tables 
complete  for  the  state.  In  the  final  result  there  is  no  material 
difference,  and  it  is  convenient  to  consider  the  conditions  in  Vir 
ginia  as  varying  in  these  three  sections. 

The  figures  for  the  first  table  were  compiled  from  the  Re 
port  of  the  Auditor  of  Public  Accounts  for  1914  and  the  Re- 

104 


RURAL,  LAND  OWNERSHIP 


105 


port  of  the  Virginia  Tax  Commission  which  based  its  estimate 
of  the  ratio  between  actual  value  and  assessed  value  on  an  exam 
ination  of  sale  prices  in  the  various  counties.  These  computa 
tions  were  made  for  each  county  and  compiled  into  the  table  by 
sections.  The  figures  for  the  second  table  were  taken  from  the 
thirteenth  census  and  the  Auditor's  Report  and  were  compiled 
in  the  same  manner. 

TABLE  A:  LAND  VALUES  BY  SECTIONS  AND  RACES. 

Tidewater      Piedmont    Val.  &  S.  W. 

Ass.  value  negro  land  &  bldgs...  $     6,139,015  $  7,634,131  $        919,131 

Ass.  value  white  land  £  bldgs...  56,560,543     78,471,144       80,436,301 

Ratio  to   true  value 34%               32%               22.6% 

Est.  true  value  negro  land  &  bldgs.  18,055,926     23,856,659         4,064,287 

Est.  true  value  white  land  &  bldgs.  166,354,538  245,222,325     355,912,836 

Ass.   value   negro  lots  and   imp...  1,873,945          879,099            564,949 

Ass.  value  white  lots  and   imps..  18,633,325     18,588,161       16,996,805 

Ratio   to   true   value 42.6%             43%                  31% 

Est.  true  value  negro  lots  and  imps.  4,396,593       2,032,742         1,822,419 

Est.  true  value  white  lots  and  imps.  43,740,199     43,228,281       54,828,400 


TABLE  B:  POPULATION  AND  FARMS  BY  SECTIONS  AND 

RACES. 


White 

pop      1910.    .    . 

Tidewater 
226,846 

Piedmont 
364,698 

Val.  &  S.  W. 
518,818 

Negro 

pop      1900 

211  367 

274  295 

61,939 

Negro 

pop     1910 

221  387 

254,972 

54,555 

White 

farms    1910 

26  887 

50  746 

58,122 

Negro 

farms    1910 

18,654 

27,444 

1,993 

Negro 

owned   acreage 

1914  

600,809 

1,024,264 

65,561 

White 

owned   acreage 

1914      .    .  . 

4,635,184 

9,141,699 

8,034,745 

Nesrro 

owned  farms   ii 

i    1910 

12  735 

17  854 

1,616 

%  of  r 

icgro  farms  op. 

by  owners. 

68.1% 

62.5% 

71% 

The  whole  of  the  Rivanna  District,  which  extends  north  and 
east  of  Charlottesville  some  seventeen  miles,  was  traversed  by 
carriage.  In  these  drives  the  homes  of  some  three  hundred  ne 
groes  were  seen  and  records  were  made,  according  to  the  fol 
lowing  schedule,  for  103  families.  These  were  picked  from  the 
different  communities  all  over  the  district  and  include  about  the 


106  PHELPS-STOKES    FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

proper  proportions  for  each  class  of  negro  family.  The  idea 
was  to  interview  typical  families  in  each  class  and  the  visits  were 
made  with  this  object  in  view. 

QUESTIONAIRE  AND   OBSERVATIONS. 

Economic : 

Black 

Name  Age  (about)    Mulatto   

District  Acres  owned   Rented 

Assessed  Val Value  based  on 

sales  Declared  value  Soil   

Fertilizer  (any  used  and  what  kind)    

Type  of  neighboring  white  farms    

Any  other  means  of  support   

Any  contribution  by  members  of  family   

Crop    Diversification    

Tilable  area   Income :  wages  per  day    

days  worked   sale  price  of  crop 

total    Expenditures : 

clothes   food   tobacco   

liquor   church   lodge 

patent  medicines   doctors  bills   

fuel   total    Have  you  a  bank 

account   Where   Any  insurance 

Where  do  you  buy   what  food 

quantities    cash    Do  you 

borrow    purpose    security    

Live  stock   (what)    Number 

Value    Poultry    

Value    Garden   patch    

what  raised    Anything  canned    

House    rooms    painted    

No.  occupants   furniture    Outhouses 

What   condition   Fences 

Implements    Satisfied  with   country   life    

Children  leaving   

Education: 

Can  you  read    write    What  school  did  you 

attend    Do  children  attend 

where    Why  not   (if  not) 

Do    they   attend   regularly    

Grade   Do  you  vote   


RURAL   LAND  OWNERSHIP  107 


party  What  paper  do  you  take 

Do  you  know  any  Hampton  people   .  . , 

What  do  you  think  of  them    


Health: 

Are  you  married,   divorced,  separated    

Number  in  family   number  children   

number  children  lost   Diseases:  tuberculosis 

typhoid   fever    Privy 

WTho  is  your  doctor    

Social  and  Religious: 

Do  you  belong  to  a  church   Denomination 

Ho\v  many  of  family  belong   Do 

you  attend   How  often   Where 

Church   sociables    

How  often  Preachers :  (see  some  of  them)    

Do  you  belong 

to  a  lodge   Name  of  same    

Type :   sick    funeral death 

social   life   Am't  of  dues 

.   Am't  of  benefit   . 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

BARRINGER,  P.  B. 

"The  American  Negro.''       An  address  delivered  before  the 
Tri-State  Medical  Society  at  Charleston,  1900. 

BRAWLEY,  B.  G. 

"A  Short  History  of  the  American  Negro." 

BROOKS,  R.  P. 

"A  Local  Study  of  the  Race  Problem."     (Political  Science 
Quarterly,  1911.) 

BRUCE,  P.  A. 

"The  Plantation  Negro  as  a  Free  Man." 

CHURCH,  J.  W. 

"The    Halifax    Plan    for    the    Practical     Education    of    the 
Negro."     (Hampton  Press,  1910.) 


108  PHELPS-STOKES   FELLOWSHIP    PAPERS 

DAVIS,  JACKSON. 

"The  Negro  in  Country  Life."  An  address  delivered  be 
fore  the  Rural  Life  Conference  at  the  University  of 
Virginia,  1911. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B. 

"The  Negro  Artisan" — (Atlanta  University  Publications.) 

"The  Negroes  of  Farmville,  Va."  (Bulletin  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  Labor,  No.  14.) 

"Negro  Landholders  of  Georgia."  (Bulletin  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  Labor,  No.  35.) 

"The  Souls  of  the  Black  Folk." 

FLEMMING,  W.  H. 

"Documentary  History  of  the  Reconstruction." 

HAMMOND,  L.  H. 

"In  Black  and  White :    An  Interpretation  of  Southern  Life." 

HART,  A.  B. 

"The  Southern  South." 

"American  History  told  by  Contemporaries." 

HILL,  W.  B. 

"A  Rural  Survey  of  Clark  County,  Ga.,  with  Special  Refer 
ence  to  the  Negroes."  (Phelps-Stokes  Fellowship 
Studies  No.  2  Bulletin  of  the  University  of  Georgia.) 

KELLER,  A.  G. 

"Societal  Evolution." 

KELSEY,  CARL. 

"The  Negro  Farmer." 

MURPHY,  E.  G. 

"The  Basis  of  Ascendency." 
"Problems  of  the  Present  South." 

PAGE,  THOMAS  NELSON. 
"The  Old  Dominion." 
"The  Negro:    The  Southerner's  Problem." 

PATTERSON, 

"The  Negro  and  His  Needs." 


RURAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP  109 

STONE,  A.  H. 

"  Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem." 

THOM,  W.  T. 

"The  Negroes  of  Sandy  Springs,  Md."  (Bulletin  of  the 
Department  of  Labor,  No.  32.) 

"The  Negroes  of  Litwalton,  Va."  (Bulletin  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  Labor,  No.  37.) 

TILLINGHAST,  J.  A. 

"The  Negro  in  Africa  and  America."     (Publications  of  the 

American  Economic  Association,  1902.) 
"The    South    in   the    Building    of   the    Nation" — articles    by 

Flemming,  Parker,  Clark  and  Jacobson. 

WASHINGTON,  BOOKER  T. 

"The  Future  of  the  American  Negro." 

"Up  From  Slavery." 

"The  Story  of  the  Negro." 

"The  Negro  in  the  South"  (joint  author  with  DuBois.) 

WALKER,  T.  C. 

"Negro  Property  Holding  in  Tidewater  Virginia."  (Annals 
the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Sciences, 
1913.) 

WEATHERFORD,  W.  D. 

"Negro  Life  in  the  South." 
"Present  Forces  in  Negro  Progress." 

WILLIAMS,  W.  T.  B. 

"Local  Conditions  Among  Negroes."  (Hampton  Press, 
1906.) 

WOODS,  EDGAR. 

"History  of  Albemarle." 

WOOFTER,  J.  T. 

"The  Negroes  of  Athens,  Ga."  (Phelps-Stokes  Fellowship 
Studies  No.  1,  Bulletin  of  the  University  of  Georgia.) 

WORK,  MONROE  N. 

"Negro  Year  Book,  1914-15." 


110  PHELPS-STOKES  FELLOWSHIP  PAPERS 

REPORTS  OF  THE  CENSUS  BUREAU. 

"The  Southern  Workman" — files  in  the  Library  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Virginia. 

Report  of  the  State  Auditor  of  Public  Accounts,  1914. 

Report  of  the  Virginia  Tax  Commission,  1914. 

Handbook  of  the  Virginia  Department  of  Health. 

Year  Books  of  the  Virginia  Department  of  Agriculture. 

Reports  of  the  Slater  and  Jeannes  Funds. 

Reports  of  the  Hampton  Negro  Conferences  1898-1911. 


The  Michie  Company,  Printers 
Charlottesville,  Virginia 


THIS  BOOK 


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OCT 
CIRCULATION 


50m-1.'16 


STACKS       OCT2l'68 

LD9-40m.3,'66(OU59s4)4185 


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